PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN : Tuesday 16th February 2021.

I finally got around to seeing 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN' this week following its release in Australia on 7th January. This MA15+ Rated American thriller offering is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Emerald Fennell in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2020 and went on general release Stateside on 25th December 2020 having so far taken approaching US$9M at the Box Office and garnered positive Reviews. It was named one of the ten best films of 2020 by the National Board of Review, with Carey Mulligan also winning Best Actress, and has received fifty-three award wins so far plus a further 114 nominations including four nods at the upcoming 78th Golden Globe Awards on 1st March, including Best Motion Picture, Drama.

The opening scene of the film sees three male colleagues in a bar late one evening all ridiculing a female colleague. One of the men, Jerry (Adam Brody) notices what's look to be a very drunk young and particularly attractive woman sat all alone. Egged on by his colleagues he siddles up to the woman playing the concerned and caring gentlemen who offers to share a cab home with her to ensure she arrives safely. On the journey he suggests a stop off at his place which is close by for a nightcap. She complies with his wishes and once home and after said nightcap, the woman says she needs to lie down. Jerry seizes the opportunity to get her onto his bed and starts groping, kissing and removing her underwear. At this, the woman sits bolt upright and asks what the hell he thinks he's doing, now as sober as a judge. Jerry is somewhat surprised to say the least at the woman's sudden sobriety, and starts to backtrack as the woman gives him a very stern dressing down.  

It turns out that the woman in question is thirty year old Cassandra 'Cassie' Thomas (Carey Mulligan) who lives with her parents Susan and Stanley (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown respectively). They have breakfast together every morning and Cassie's mother especially berates her for not having a boyfriend, having no friends, for still living at home, and for having a near non-existent social life. Cassie responds saying that's just the way she likes it. Cassie works at a coffee shop owned by Gail (Laverne Cox), and there one day comes in Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham) whom nine years previously she was in medical school with. Ryan is now a paediatric surgeon, while Cassie who was the brains of their class is working in a dead end coffee shop! Ryan asks Cassie out, but she initially refuses his advances. 

A few nights later and Cassie is with Neil (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), once again pretending to be very drunk in his apartment. Neil snorts a couple of lines of coke and encourages Cassie to do the same, but she blows instead of snorts. Neil comes on all sympathetic and caring about Cassie's inebriated state and starts to grope and kiss her and puts his hand up her dress. At which point, Cassie reverts back to her completely sober state and asks what he thought he was doing. Neil is taken aback and starts to be fearful of the repercussions that Cassie might bestow up on him, and is left defenceless as she pins him against the wall and reads him the riot act. 

The next days Ryan is back in the coffee shop and again asks her out on a dinner date - this time Cassie responds in the affirmative. On their first date Ryan mentions that their former classmate Alexander 'Al' Monroe (Chris Lowell) is getting married soon. Now it comes out that at medical school Cassie was very close friends with a Nina Fisher who was raped by Al Monroe nine years ago. As a result, both the school and the legal system failed Nina and as a consequence both Nina and Cassie dropped out of medical school despite being Grade A students, and subsequently Nina committed suicide. 

Hearing the news of Al's forthcoming wedding, Cassie begins plotting her revenge on those she considers responsible for the rape and death of her best friend. She first invites an old friend from medical school, Madison McPhee (Alison Brie), who didn't believe Nina's accusations, to lunch at an upmarket restaurant and gets her drunk on Champagne and red wine, then has a man she hired take Madison to her hotel room. After the incident, Cassie ignores all of her many calls. 

Next, Cassie targets Elizabeth Walker (Connie Britton), the medical school dean who dismissed Nina's case due to lack of evidence. Cassie pretends to be a makeup artist for a band called 'Wet Dream' that Walker's teenage daughter Amber (Francisca Estevez) loves and tricks the teenager into getting into her car. Later, Cassie meets Walker under the pretense of resuming her education and questions her about the events that led to Nina's dropout and death. When Walker explains away her actions, Cassie tells her she dropped Amber off at a dorm room with a bunch of drunk male students, and not to worry!! After a fearful Walker apologises for her inaction, Cassie reveals Amber is safe at a local diner. 

Next up Cassie pays a visit to Jordan Green (Alfred Molina), Al's lawyer who harassed Nina into dropping her charges. When Green expresses remorse for his actions, having suffered a mental breakdown over his guilt and now on a forced sabbatical from his law firm, Cassie forgives him. After visiting Nina's mother (Molly Shannon), who urges her to move on, Cassie abandons the rest of her plans for revenge. And so Cassie's relationship with Ryan goes from strength to strength, so much so that the pair find themselves falling in love with each other. 

One day when returning home, Cassie finds Madison waiting outside her house, still distraught and desperate to know what happened after their lunch having woken up in a hotel room with a strange man with whom she has no memory. Cassie reassures her that nothing happened. In response, Madison gives Cassie an old phone containing a video of Nina's rape before telling her to never make contact with her again. As she watches the video, Cassie is shocked to see Ryan among the onlookers. She confronts him at the hospital where he works and threatens to release the video unless he tells her where Al's bachelor party is being held. Ryan tells her and begs for forgiveness, but Cassie refuses and turns her back on him.

Cassie arrives at Al's bachelor party as a stripper in a nurses uniform, plying Al's friends with spiked alcohol to knock them all out and takes Al upstairs to be alone. She handcuffs him to the bed which he willingly volunteers to, and then reveals her true identity to him. However, as she tries to carve Nina's name into Al's stomach, he breaks free from one pair of cuffs, overpowers her and suffocates Cassie under a pillow. 

The next morning, Al's friend Joe (Max Greenfield) comes up to the room, discovers a sobbing Al and the lifeless body of Cassie still under the pillow, consoles him and helps him burn Cassie's body to destroy any evidence. A couple of days later Cassie's parents file a missing person report, and the Police begin an investigation. A Detective questions Ryan at the hospital, but Ryan does not reveal where Cassie was going and states that they split up five days ago and suggests she was mentally unwell and possibly suicidal.

During Al's wedding reception in the grounds of the house where the bachelor party was held, it is revealed that Cassie had sent Jordan Green the phone with the video of Nina's rape, along with information on where she was headed and who would be responsible if she went missing. The Police begin to arrive immediately after the wedding ceremony, and with Police tracker dogs uncover the burnt remains of Cassie's body. At the reception in front of all the gathered guests, the Police arrest Al and cart him away handcuffed, while Joe flees the scene and Ryan receives several scheduled texts from Cassie, explaining that this is not the end, until it is. She signs off in her name and a ; )

This is a thought provoking, of the moment, pitch black revenge thriller comedy that starts of light but culminates in a real sucker punch by the time the end credits roll, that will leave an impression firmly planted in your brain long after you have left the theatre. For her debut movie making outing, Director and Writer Emerald Fennell has here delivered a bold, audacious, never boring and highly relevant film underpinned by perhaps a career best performance from Carey Mulligan playing completely against type, and she absolutely nails it. The rest of the principle cast are alas undercooked in the often fleeting scenes they are in, but carried along on Mulligan's coat tails which should propel her into the Best Actress nominations at this years upcoming Oscars. 

'Promising Young Woman' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 7th January 2021.

With 2020 now firmly behind us, and good riddance to that, we welcome the brave new world that is 2021, and over the next four months there are a slew of awards ceremonies to look forward to, with the countdown now on for nominations of those awards, with the following dates now locked in leading us up to the all singing all dancing Hollywood night of nights, the Oscar's, pushed back this year to the end of April :-

* January 9th 2021 - National Society of Film Critics Winners announced,

* January 11th 2021 - Gotham Independent Film Awards,

* January 16th 2021 - International Documentary Association Awards,

* January 26th 2021 - National Board of Review Awards,

* January 31st 2021 - Grammy Awards (postponed from this date due to COVID-19, to a yet to be advised date sometime in March),

* February 28th 2021 - Golden Globe Awards,

* March 5th 2021 - Hollywood Critics Association Awards,

* March 7th 2021 - Critics Choice Awards,

* March 14th 2021 - Screen Actors Guild Awards,

* March 21st 2021 - Writers Guild of American Awards,

* March 24th 2021 - Producers Guild of America Awards,

* April 6th 2021 - Visual Effects Society Awards,

* April 10th 2021 - Directors Guild of America Awards and the Art Directors Guild Awards,

* April 11th 2021 - BAFTA Awards,

* April 16th 2021 - Annie Awards,

* April 24th 2021 - Film Independent Spirit Awards,

* April 25th 2021 - the 93rd Academy Awards.

This week then there are six latest release new movies coming to an Odeon near you. Launching with a tale about a young woman who leads a secret double life at nighttime by attempting to right the wrongs of the men who have crossed her in her life so far with potentially deadly consequences. We then turn to a comedy offering of an olympic games with a difference - this one involving six best mates who challenge each other to a contest of mental and physical games to lift one of them out of a depressive state and win a stash of cash in the process. Next up is a British WWII drama charting the unlikely bond that develops between a reclusive writer and a young evacuee lad who is placed under her care; which is followed up by a true story of a young lad and his father who train a flock of geese to take a different and safer migration route to Norway. And we close out the week with a pair of family friendly animated films - the first from Denmark about a young girl who learns to manipulate her own and others dreams, with potentially dire consequences for her step sister and her family; and the other is about a honey bee and her friend who are entrusted with a golden egg, which when it hatches leads the group on an adventure to save the hatchling and their new found insect friends from an imminent attack.    

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN' (Rated MA15+) - this American thriller offering is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Emerald Fennell in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2020 and went on general release Stateside on 25th December 2020 having so far taken US$2M at the Box Office and garnered generally positive Reviews. 

Everyone said Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) was a promising young woman, until that is, a mysterious event abruptly disrupted her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it seems. She’s wickedly smart, tantalisingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past, but at what cost ultimately? Also starring Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Christoper Mintz-Plasse, Chris Lowell and Alfred Molina. 

'THE BUDDY GAMES' (Rated MA15+) - this American comedy film is Directed, Co-Produced, Co-Written and stars Josh Duhamel in his film directorial debut. The film saw its World Premier showing at the Mammoth Film Festival way back in February 2019, saw its release in the US in November 2020, has so far taken US$406K at the Box Office and has been generally negatively Reviewed by Critics. The film centres on a group of six lifelong friends that reunite after a five-year hiatus, having previously fallen out, to play the Buddy Games - an insane competition of absurd physical and mental challenges. Now all bets are off, as the determined friends fight, claw, and party in a challenging set of dares and games and help lift one of their own out of depression and also have a chance of winning US$150K in the process. They'll heal old wounds, right past wrongs and figure out the true meaning of friendship - or at least die trying. Also starring Olivia Munn, Kevin Dillon, Dax Shepard, James Roday Rodriguez and Neal McDonough. 

'SUMMERLAND' (Rated PG) - is a British drama film Written and Directed by Jessica Swale in her film making debut. This film was released in the UK in late July last year, has so far taken US$400K off the back of a US$1.2M production budget, and has generated mixed or average Reviews so far. During World War II, reclusive writer Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton) has her sequestered life in a small East Sussex coastal town upended when young Frank (Lucas Bond), an evacuee from the London Blitz, is left in her care. Despite initially resolving to be rid of him within a week, Alice finds herself and her emotions reawakened by him. Also starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton, Tom Courtney, and Dixie Egerickx. 

'SPREAD YOUR WINGS' (Rated PG) - based on a real story this French and Norwegian Co-Produced film is Directed by Nicolas Vanier whose previous feature film outings include 'Loup' in 2009, 'Belle & Sebastian' in 2013, 'School of Life' in 2017 and most recently 'Poly' in 2020. This was film was released in France back in early October 2019 and only now does it get a limited showing in selected cinemas in Australia. The story here tells of Christian (Jean-Paul Rouve) who is a visionary scientist who studies migrating geese. For his teenage son Thomas (Louis Vazquez), the idea of spending a summer holiday alone with his father on a farm in the middle of nowhere, is a complete no-no. However, father and son begin to bond as they come together with an outlandish plan to save an endangered species of geese. With Christian’s pilot skills and an ultra-light aircraft, they begin preparations for an extraordinary and perilous journey to lead the geese they’ve raised onto new and safer migration routes, guiding them to Norway. The film has so far taken US$13M at the global Box Office and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews from Critics. 

'DREAMBUILDERS' (Rated PG) - is a Danish animated comedy fantasy adventure feature film from Directors Kim Hagen Jensen and Tonni Zinck, was released in its native Denmark back in early February last year, has so far grossed US$2.5M and has generated mostly mixed or average Reviews. Here, Minna’s (Robyn Dempsey) life is turned upside down when her dad’s new fiancee Helena (Karen Ardiff) and her daughter Jenny (Emma Jenkins) move in. Her new stepsister Jenny turns out to be horrible and Minna is frustrated. She wants her gone! One night, Minna discovers a world behind her dreams in which the dreambuilders create our dreams on theatre stages and learns how to manipulate Jenny’s dreams. But interfering with people’s dreams has dire consequences and when Minna goes too far one night, Jenny can’t wake up any more. Minna must enter the dream world one final time to face the dreams she has created in order to save Jenny and her new family. 

'MAYA THE BEE 3 : THE GOLDEN ORB' (Rated G) - Directed by Noel Cleary (who also Directed 2018's 'Maya the Bee : The Honey Games') this is the third feature length animated film in the series which sees Maya (Coco Jack Gillies) and Willy bust out of winter lock down early when they are catapulted headfirst into a top-secret mission! Entrusted with the care of a sacred orb, Maya and Willy team up with their old pals, Arnie and Barney, to deliver it to its new home atop the mysterious Bonsai Peak. But when their "orb" hatches, Maya and Willy come face to face with their biggest responsibility yet - a soft and wrinkly little princess! This adventure is much more than they counted on as they must work together to take on bounty hunters and traverse treacherous terrain to return the lost princess to her mountain colony, only to find it hanging in the balance of a turf war. But to save her and her colony, Maya and Willy must convince the battling insect population to work together in order to survive a hungry bird attack! Also starring the voice talents of Evie Gillies, Benson Jack Anthony, Justine Clarke, Shane Dundas and David Collins.

With six new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-