“Man. That ending!” That’s likely what you’d hear everyone saying on the way out of the multiplex — if we were all still going to the multiplex — after “Promising Young Woman.” In an audacious and provocative film (nominated for five Oscars), there’s no part more audacious and provocative than the final act, in which former medical student Cassie (Carey Mulligan) exacts her very unique form of revenge.
But though some call the film a black comedy, there’s nothing funny about the end — it’s brutal, and feels very real. Writer-director Emerald Fennell says she wasn’t interested in a comic-book fantasy ending.
Nobody pulls out an AK-47 and blows the bad guys away. In fact, the bad guys tend to masquerade as good guys. Fennell, nominated for