It stars Carey Mulligan as a troubled young woman haunted by a traumatic past as she navigates balancing forgiveness and vengeance, with Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Chris Lowell, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, and Connie Britton in supporting roles.

[6][7][8][9] Promising Young Woman had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 25, 2020, by Focus Features.

It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Fennell's direction and screenplay and Mulligan's performance, and it grossed $18 million worldwide.

Cassie Thomas is a 30-year-old medical school dropout who works in a coffee shop and spends her evenings going to bars and clubs and pretending to be drunk, then confronting those who attempt to take sexual advantage of her intoxication.

It is slowly revealed that Cassie quit medical school after the public rape of her lifelong best friend, Nina Fisher, who subsequently dropped out and committed suicide when her alleged rapist, Al Monroe, was cleared of wrongdoing.

Angered that he has found success and happiness, while Nina is dead, Cassie begins to orchestrate revenge against the people that she thinks contributed to nobody being held accountable for the rape.

First, Cassie meets with Madison McPhee, another former classmate, who blames Nina for her own assault because she often drank to excess, adding, "What did she think was going to happen?"

Flashbacks reveal that Jordan had received a package with the cell phone and instructions in case Cassie did not return from the bachelor party.

Emerald Fennell devised the concept of the film in 2017, and sold the script to Margot Robbie's production company LuckyChap Entertainment after pitching the opening scene.

[11] In March 2019, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson, and Molly Shannon joined the cast,[12] with Angela Zhou and Clancy Brown being added in April.

[17] The film production crew deliberately chose male actors who previously played characters known as good or wholesome to reinforce the idea that predators can be anyone.

Prior to writing the script, Fennell initially considered an ending where Cassie appears at the wedding and kills the men responsible, but she deemed it unrealistic.

[3][4] In February 2019, Focus Features acquired distribution rights to the film for the world excluding Australia, New Zealand, the Benelux, Israel, Greece, Middle East, the CIS, and South Africa.

[31][32] The film continued to hold well in the subsequent weekends, including seeing a 16% bump following its four Golden Globe nominations, with a running total of $5.1 million by February 21.

The website's consensus reads: "A boldly provocative, timely thriller, Promising Young Woman is an auspicious feature debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell – and a career highlight for Carey Mulligan.

[30] Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a "B+" and wrote, "Emerald Fennell's raucous debut, Promising Young Woman, twists its buzzword-laden, spoiler-free synopsis—it's a #MeToo rape revenge thriller with bite!—into something fresh and totally wild.

"[38] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang said, "The grimly multitasking finale of Promising Young Woman feels both audacious and uncertain of itself, as Fennell tries to meld a cackle of delight and a blast of fury, with a lingering residue of anguish.

"[40] In Variety, Dennis Harvey praised Mulligan's performance as "skillful, entertaining and challenging", but questioned her casting, writing that she wore her "pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on".

Club stated that Ryan Cooper initially is contrasted with predatory men and "represents the possibility of forgiveness, a light at the end of the dark tunnel [Cassie has] been traveling through since college.

"[20] In regards to the reveal showing his true character, Dowd said: "Even those who didn't participate are complicit for their silence, their justifications, their refusal to intervene.