Pop queens of "promising young women

This story contains some spoilers about Promising Young Woman.

Anger. Revenge. A circling group of drunken, sweaty, khaki-clad men. There is a pop song about everything and anything in Promising Young Woman.

And it's intentional: Writer/director Emerald Fennell (best known as the Emmy-nominated showrunner of Season 2 of "Killing Eve" and as Camilla in Netflix's "The Crown") helms this radical thriller, in which rape is A powerful #MeToo revenge drama, with music underscoring the tragic and complex emotions that rape brings. Cunning Kathy (Carey Mulligan), a medical school dropout turned barista, leads a double life. She half-heartedly makes soy milk lattes by day and pretends to be drunk at a bar at night to get back at predatory men. Why play vigilante?" she rails against a system that failed to protect her best friend Nina, who was raped and later died by suicide.

In Promising Young Woman, which opened in theaters on December 25 and was released on VOD on January 15, pop music underscores the intense and complex power of Cathy's emotions and, more specifically, of female rage. This is not uncommon in pop music: female artists have often used songs to reclaim power taken from them by men; in 2015, Lady Gaga released "Til It Happens To You," a tribute to survivors of sexual assault (opens in new tab). Kesha's 2017 power ballad "Praying" was a response to the pain she endured at the hands of the music industry, particularly longtime producer Dr. Luke, whom she accused (opens in new tab) of sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional assault in 2014. (In February 2020, a judge sided with Dr. Luke, ruling that Singer had defamed Dr. Luke. Kesha has since appealed the ruling (opens in new tab)) In 2011's "Man Down," Rihanna tackles head-on the domestic violence she personally experienced (opens in new tab).

Like Cathy, the use of music in this film is very clever. These songs give us the different waves of emotion that she goes through." At times they are really pop and derogatory, and at other times they are very deep, dark, and edgy," Susan Jacobs, music supervisor, told Marie Claire. The film's female-driven soundtrack magnifies Cathy's fugue state of trauma as the cynical Cathy vacillates between retribution and absolution. It becomes a vessel for her power.

At the beginning of Promising Young Woman, the chiptune beat of Charli XCX's "Boys" narrates the gruesome visual of a dance floor filled with inebriated men; XCX's music is a perfect accompaniment to Joe Jonas and It's an ironic choice, given that it's an ode to unrequited daydreams combined with pin-up calendar videos of glamorous celebrities like Riz Ahmed. Instead, the scene flips the script and uses the song to highlight the blissful ignorance of men and their sickening behavior.

"When I was writing [the film], I was busy thinking about boys, and Kathy was busy thinking about boys.

"The subject matter of the film is dark, but it gives the audience permission to laugh and have fun without the film necessarily being dark all the time.

One night after teaching a toxic man a (nonviolent) lesson, Cathy is catcalled by a group of construction workers. They are dressed in their disheveled clothes from the night before and jelly from ravishing donuts runs down their faces. As she stops to glare at them, a cover of The Weather Girls' camp classic "It's Raining Men" plays in the background; like "Boys," Death By Loomis' cover is an aural eye-opener to the crude behavior of men. The song further amplifies Kathy's ability to wield the power of her own stare, turning a snarky experience for women and femipresentatives into a darkly funny reality check.

Throughout the film, Cathy sees glimmers of hope. When she finally decides to let her guard down with her former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), whom she reunites with at a coffee shop, "despite the fact that this tragedy has ruined her life, maybe it's possible for her to trust a man and, well, love him," the anger and retribution that has consumed her life It seemed as if she might be able to escape. One of the film's best moments is like a romantic comedy outtake: at the height of their bliss, Cathy and Ryan karaoke to Paris Hilton's 2006 song "Stars Are Blind" in the pharmacy aisle.

"Falling in love feels like a movie montage. 'It feels like being in a land of pastel-colored candy.' And for me, that song was "Stars Are Blind" by Paris Hilton. This sunrise moment, though brief, stayed with me long after the film.

Hilton was honored to have her pop anthem become part of Fennell's vision. "When I met Emerald a few months ago, she told me how perfect my song was for the film," Hilton told Marie Claire. I'm proud of how iconic and timeless [the song] is, and how much my fans love it to this day."

The scene in "Stars Are Blind" is unforgettable, but the film's climax is its shining moment. In it, Kathy decides to confront Al Monroe (Chris Lowell), the man who raped Nina, at his bachelor party. (Fennell considers this a bit of a "fairy tale" moment of failure, like "Hansel and Gretel going into the woods.") Kathy prepares to enter the lion's den to a tense string version of Britney Spears' "Toxic," arranged by Anthony Willis.

Backed by a soul-stirring Spears cover, suspense builds and it becomes clear that Kathy has snapped: her anger has reached a point of no return, and the great thing about "Toxic" is that it almost has the strings from "Psycho. There's already so much malice in this song, it's quite thrilling," Fennel says. 'I think the film portrays so much toxic stuff that even Kathy can't contain her anger. The arrangement is a playful, almost mischievous twist on the pop song, but Willis' remix is also a sign of the looming danger Cathy faces as she continues to be controlled by her trauma.

The film's final scene, in which Cathy uses a contingency plan (a scheduled email) to defeat Al from the grave, is accompanied by a wink and a nod. The audience watches as a police car rushes into Al's wedding and he is taken away in handcuffs. There is no happy ending for Cathy, but there is a heroic one.

For Fennell, the final song needed to be "a delicate balance of humor, heartfelt yet kind of subversive, kind of wicked funny." She wanted to fill the film's final scene with a cover of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," the theme from "Dirty Dancing," or the Walker Brothers' "No Regrets," but ultimately Juice Newton's "Angel of the Morning ', which I found to be the perfect balance of heart, triumph, and a bit of a devil-may-care vibe.

Fletcher's composition of "Last Laugh" for the film's credits scene provided the perfect ending to the final sentiment. The artist told Marie Claire, "I wanted to take a strong and powerful stance, just as Cathy's role does throughout the film." "She tries to right the wrongs of the past, and in the end it is she who has the last laugh."

Ultimately, the soundtrack of Promising Young Woman explains the context of the film, empowers the female voice, and celebrates pop music. Frankly, the film would not be the same without this soundtrack. The film has a soundscape that corresponds to every scene of pushing and shoving, and we can thank the community dominated by badass women for making it possible.

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