Promising Young Woman - 5 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year Ben Browning (producer)  Ashley Fox (producer)  Emerald Fennell (producer)  Josey McNamara (producer)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Carey Mulligan

Best Achievement in Directing - Emerald Fennell

Best Original Screenplay - Emerald Fennell (written by)

Best Achievement in Film Editing - Frédéric Thoraval

Promising Young Woman tells the story of Cassandra (Carey Mulligan), a medical school dropout cum coffee barista who is handing out street justice to those involved in a trauma-inducing crime she and her best friend experienced while in medical school.  In the process, she has a little side hustle of trapping and scaring the hell out of potential rapists and self-defined "good guys" who take home drunk women that they might "get lucky" and luck themselves right into raping said women.  Cassandra won't stop until she has sought revenge against the rapist, the cheering by-standers, and those professionals in the college system who are impotent or unwilling to bring to account those who perpetrate criminal behavior; because it's difficult to prove, because it hurts the university's crime statistics, and worst of all... because the rapist has "such a promising future."

Sounds heavy, right?  Not so with this impressive film that manages to inspire emotions that run the gambit - there are really funny parts in this revenge movie.  There are tense parts, there are scary parts, there are emotional parts, and all of the parts merge to form a delicious whole.  Credit is due to Carey Mulligan who is so utterly likable and so brilliantly tactical that we root for her, even as she does her worst.  While I doubt that this film will win Best Picture, the screenplay has a shot.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I used to work in student affairs and the professionals I know have always taken rape quite seriously as a crime, and my observation is that they put the students who report as their top priorities.  I worry that their good work comes into question with films like this, but having said that, there is enough evidence that many universities have failed in their duty of care for the students that this story is easily believable.  In fact, if this film speaks to you, I highly recommend another film called, "The Hunting Ground," for which Diane Warren and Lady Gaga received an Oscar nomination for Original Song.  This documentary captures the realities of rape on campus and what university administrators are doing - or not doing - about it.

Promising Young Woman is worth it for the performances alone, but is worthy of all nominations it has received.

Watch the trailer here.