Revenge movies are, at heart, wish-fulfilment fantasies.

A traditional rape/revenge movie offers the satisfaction of seeing a woman bring her rapist to justice - usually through violence.

I'd argue that #PromisingYoungWoman fails to do this AND fails to ~subvert the genre. https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/1385014305280700417

The thing is, PYW *is also* a total fantasy. The story only works if we ignore (or completely rewrite) some basic elements of human behavior. It doesn't make sense AND it's not morally/emotionally satisfying.

(Spoilers in thread!)

PYW's heroine Cassandra entraps rapists by pretending to be blackout drunk in bars. An intriguing idea, altho in reality she'd also attract a ton of women trying to help her get home safe.

(The film doesn't show this, because it has a very meanspirited view of both men & women.)

Once Cassandra has successfully honeytrapped a rapist, what does she do?

She... reveals that she's not actually drunk! And that's it. The guy's entire "comeuppance" is having to admit that he's an attempted rapist. There's no follow-up.

In theory, we're meant to be satisfied by watching these men feel vulnerable & guilty. But do they actually see the error of their ways? Will they stop trying to rape people now? We literally don't know!

(Two people have already replied to this thread saying, "Wait, she DOESN'T kill them??" which really emphasizes the success of PYW's trailer, which strongly implied it was a straightforward revenge movie.)