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Promising Young Woman Lays the Gauntlet for Culpability
Emerald Fennell’s debut feature film is a dark comedy-thriller about women’s rage and the culture that continues to pat it on the head.
FYI: There’s no way for me to properly discuss this film without mentioning spoilers — I’ve consolidated the big ones to two paragraphs towards the bottom, which I’ve bookended. Proceed with caution.
In the final episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Sarah Paulson’s Marcia Clark explains why she became a prosecutor. She relays that she was raped as a teenager, and that her first rape case as a lawyer not only unearthed the pain of that experience, but made her purpose in the practice crystal clear: “I have something — this thing in me that wants vengeance. Vengeance for victims. That’s what justice is to me.”
I have no idea if the real Marcia Clark ever uttered those words, but I think about then every so often. And when I saw the trailer for Promising Young Woman, they were all I could think about.
