Best Picture Nominee number 5 – look at me go! This one caught my eye way back when I saw the first trailer for it (it’s one whose release got pushed back multiple times due to COVID, so this was a while back,) but some of the online chatter around it made me a little less sure. As with Wonder Woman 1984, because I was avoiding spoilers, I didn’t know what the discourse was, I just knew that it existed. But again, as with Wonder Woman 1984, I decided to see the film anyway. I now understand why it’s divisive, but I found it very compelling overall, even though there are elements I take issue with.
Seven years ago, Cassie dropped out of med school. Since then, she’s been underemployed and living with her parents, who constantly worry about her. The root of this break and subsequent shunning of everything she’s been told to go after is the suicide of her best friend, whose accusations of rape against a fellow student went unheard. Now, Cassie spends her weekends in bars, pretending to be falling-down drunk in order to bait “Nice Guys” into showing their true colors. And when she runs into an old acquaintance from med school, she decides to put a clearly long-thought-out plan into motion, seeking vengeance on everyone she blames for their part in her friend’s suicide.
This is a fascinating film, such a strong exploration of rape culture, Nice Guys, and relationships. I love seeing the sheer terror on the faces of the guys who bring Cassie home when they realize she’s not wasted, not about to pass out. They’re more than ready to rape a woman who’s too drunk to consent, but faced with a sober woman? Horrified. Interesting too how they continue to insist what good guys they are, how she’s the one who’s violated them by lying to them. These are guys who have “I didn’t do anything wrong!” so deeply ingrained in them and reinforced by society around them that there’s some warped part of them that might genuinely think that’s true, even as they’re about to rape someone. There are a lot of interesting things going on here, and writer/director Emerald Fennell (fun fact: Patsy from Call the Midwife!) is nominated for her work in both categories (Best Original Screenplay for the writing.)
Cassie is a really compelling character. You understand her grief and rage so vividly, her lashing out at injustice (some of the scenes of her going up against people from her med-school days are heartbreaking to watch,) but at the same time, you also see how she’s letting this destroy her. I’m reminded of something like Sweeney Todd or The Count of Monte Cristo, where the quest for vengeance is all-consuming and threatens to get in the way of any happiness she might otherwise have, so obsessed is she with seeing someone burn for what happened.
For the sake of spoilers, I’m not going to get into the controversial elements today – I’ll save that for a different post. In the meantime, I’ll say I don’t really like certain directions the story takes, but I do understand what the film is trying to accomplish with it. In trying to articulate what I might have preferred instead, I feel like my thinking goes very general and it’s harder for me to nail down any specifics of what I would have wanted it to look like.
Carey Mulligan (I know she’s been in so many things, including another Oscar-nominated role, but I’ll always have a fondness for Sally Sparrow) is up for Best Leading Actress, and it’s easy to see why. Even apart from the added element of Cassie putting on various acts to further her revenge quest, Cassie is somehow guarded and cynical while at the same time remaining incredibly raw. It’s a terrific performance, and she’s well-supported by the likes of Bo Burnham, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox (who I always love to see,) Molly Shannon, Alison Brie (I just started rewatching Community for the first time in forever, and it all came flooding back to me,) Alfred Molina, Max Greenfield, and Adam Brody. Phew! Everyone turns in great work, and Fennell does a fine job steering in the ship in her feature directorial debut.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements (including suicide,) strong violence (including rape,) sexual content, language (including the C-word,) and drinking/smoking/drug references.
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