We’ve covered Emerald Fennell’s superb, Oscar-winning debut feature Promising Young Woman extensively here on the site since it started to play out at festivals well over a year ago. Our first review of the movie was posted in March 2020, arguably the start of its journey to its climactic Academy Award crowning glory a year later. Awais’ review from GFF said that the film is ‘an electrifying piece of work – a supercharged debut with a sugar-coated heart of darkness and a punchy message at its core.’ Then, just before Fennell scored the Best Original Screenplay award at the Oscars, Kat posted an awards spotlight, saying that the film would be talked about for years and years, and more than deserving of a gold statue or two.
Fast-forward a couple of months and Promising Young Woman is finally available for UK audiences to bask in its genius. Following an exclusive release on Sky Cinema and NOW, the film finally comes to the home formats for those not with a satellite subscription or NOW device, or those that simply prefer to hold a movie in their hands or own it on physical media.
Promising Young Woman revolves around Carey Mulligan’s Carrie who seeks revenge for her best friend, Nina, who we learn has passed years previous. She does this by pretending she’s drunk in the company of men, and then snapping into sobriety as they take advantage of her. She seems to identify random strangers, but is also planning a pre-determined hits on those associated with the death of her close friend, the film ending with jaw-dropping climax as that plan come to fruition.
I was late to witness this remarkable movie, viewing it following the success of its release stateside, and the following awards glory, but its impact remained. From its stunning design, superbly layered screenplay, and phenomenal performances, particularly from Mulligan, its easy to see why Promising Young Woman is still one of the best films of the year.
The bonus materials on the disc and iTunes digital version (from which we reviewed from) were sadly a little thin on the ground. Expecting length looks behind the scenes, we only get three short featurettes which run for just 3 or 4 minutes each. While they are short, they are informative – we just would have liked to have had more. Thankfully, there is a superb insight into the making of through an Emerald Fennell feature commentary, where the writer, director and producer guides us through the making of her remarkable movie offering key behind the scenes info; talks through the challenges of making the movie – particularly on a tight 23 day shoot – and some of the more subtle themes explored. The commentary makes this absolutely worth shelling out the price of the film on your preferred format, rather than just viewing on the streaming platform it us still available on at a touch of the button. Fennell is engaging and insightful throughout, and it was an absolute joy to watch the film through her eyes.
Promising Young Woman
Summary
A worthy physical and digital release for one of the best films of the year. While the featurettes are short in length, Fennell’s commentary more than makes up for them with a brilliantly insightful delve behind the scenes of a remarkable, groundbreaking movie.
Promising Young Woman is available to Download and Keep from 16th July and own it on Blu-ray™ and DVD 2nd August from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
