Carey Mulligan pushes on a cool place

Glossy and candy-colored, while rather gloomy when it has to be, the feature / writer Emerald Fennell appears confident (★★★ ½ out of four; rated at R; in theaters now, available Friday as video on request) neatly walks the line between romantic comedy and the thrush of revenge as they twist the ropes. Inspired by the complex and unsettling performance of Carey Mulligan, “Young Woman” explores topical themes such as toxic violence and sexual assault but also does not give up on dark humor and eternal satisfaction.

And if you are a dude who sees himself in this movie? Imagine yourself exploding.

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Cassie (Mulligan) is a well-known promising young woman, a very understanding (and very wicked, time) barista who dropped out of middle school after a mysterious magical event, who reveals herself throughout the film. gradually. Her parents (Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge) and even her boss (Laverne Cox) feel she should be doing a lot more with her life.

As it turns out, she: Cassie grimly drinks coffee during the day, but at night she goes out to clubs, pretending to be drunk, her lure into careless “good guys” who want to take advantage of her condition, and learn hard lessons on permission.

Carey Mulligan appears in new film ‘Promising Young Woman’

Carey Mulligan appears in the new film “Promising Young Woman,” which is about consent and trauma.

Focus Features, USA TODAY Handout

Vengeance is also very much on her mind, with plans coming in for men and women from the past, and a way to quickly accelerate her agenda arriving one day when an old co-op emerges. student, pediatric surgeon Ryan (Bo Burnham) entered his shop. However, he is sad, self – depressed and kind – almost unlike everyone else with whom she communicates – and Cassie begins to develop feelings for him, creating a conflict of side. -in its Batman-esque mission.

Mulligan, who won an Oscar for Best Actress for “An Education,” in 2009 will be back in the conversation as Cassie’s happy and determined man. She gets cool, and she really enjoys watching her pull the switch from falling down to being soberly drunk on her male prey. But Mulligan also recounts the deep psychological damage that has been done: While Cassie is highly organized when it comes to revenge, she forgets her 30th birthday.

Fennell ‘s throw to the men who run wrong on Cassie is a bit of an affair as well. Instead of creepers or jocks, she surrounds a team of actors – including Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Max Greenfield – who are known for playing nice guys to bring home a less heavy Cassie when they should be getting it Uber. It drives home to the point that even bad guys come in nerdy packs.

Some archetypal jerseys, such as the construction workers catching Cassie on a walk home in the morning, though spoiled by her frozen motionless look as a trippy cover of “It’s Raining Men” plays ”On the back. Fennell uses exceptional music: One of the scenes where Ryan breaks down some of Cassie’s walls is found singing Paris Hilton’s cheesy and catchy “Stars Are Blind” in the middle of a pharmacy. And an ominous, orchestral remix of “Toxic” – as Bernard Herrmann’s Britney Spears – plays as the steely Cassie, clad in a multicolored wig and latex nurse’s outfit, goes out in search of re- final compensation.

Even when you think “Promising Young Woman” is over, Fennell is not done putting her characters – or her audience – through their steps. With Mulligan dragged, she emerges as an amazing new voice in filming with a cunning heroine who is unable to accept it. And, for some, fear.