Popular reviews

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  Review by brat pacino ★★½ 41

  "I AM AWAKE IN THE PLACE WHERE WOMEN DIE." -- Jenny Holzer

  been thinking about what to write about this one for the past couple of weeks. i can see why some hate it and why some love it, and after hours of reflection i've come to the earth-shattering conclusion that... it is just okay!

  the title "promising young woman" itself is a reference to how the media called rapist brock turner a "promising young man." many know brock turner, but fewer know chanel miller, the woman who spoke out about him (and even wrote a memoir aptly titled Know My Name). similarly, our vengeful protagonist cassie is determined to let the world remember her best friend nina's name. the…

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  Review by strida ★ 97

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  if anything is as disgusting and incomprehensible as rape, it's prison — virginie despentes

  a sentient reductress headline, a complete con job, a “rape-revenge” movie where two women are dead by the end but don’t worry the um - the cops will take care of this???? this is a perfect thriller for the #metoo era or whatever indiewire bullshit is out there rn - seeing as metoo was recuperated into an ineffectual marketing tool by a liberal establishment that will brook no threat to its power :)))))

  i was physically agitated sitting thru this and that was BEFORE it takes on like a boondock saints tone for a couple scenes at the end ...... i would like to say here…

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  Review by Lucy ★★ 53

  the outer layer is a bright candy coated shell, but peeling that back reveals the inside as hollow. i don’t have negative feelings about the ending (or the film as a whole) the way some do, actually i enjoyed it until it was almost over. but then the bad taste it left behind immediately started creeping in. as a complete picture it just feels like a bunch of gotcha moments that lack a certain kind of empathy for the subject matter. the ending solidified my problems with it, bringing such potential together for just another bigger gotcha moment. it’s bold, and i dig that, but surely justice can be doled out with a little hope still attached. without that hope…

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  Review by Maria Luísa ½ 120

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  *takes a deep breath*

  If the intention was to subvert rape-revenge thrillers, whose best quality is to allow women to externalize their aggression against the injustice of gendered violence, simply by taking the trope and removing the very thing that makes it relevant, what was the point? If this had been made by some white guy who thinks women dying is revolutionary, I’d have my answer right there. But this was written and directed by a woman, so I must ask myself, did she mean for it to reflect positively in the conversation about rape culture? If so, how? What is the reflection we must extract from the graphic murder of Cassie? I am truly drawing a blank because of…

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★½ 11

  The casting of every man in this movie is just staggeringly brilliant

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  Review by Jay @ LFF ★★½ 59

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  she sure had a lot of dependance in the cops considering its implied the cops didnt believe her friends r*pe case

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  Review by Lucy ★ 84

  best picture marathon: film #4

  “you’re right, ok? is that what you wanna hear?”

  i’m of the opinion that this is an irresponsible movie. it doesn’t really matter to me if i think it’s well made or piss poor, because in the end it just stings with that carelessness. for months i’ve been weighing it on my tongue and mulling it over, and i’ve realized that it only tastes worse every day. and upon rewatch i discovered that i can’t even accept it as a study of grief or self sabotage in the wake of loss when the ending is just too much to stomach. at one point i thought it would work better as a flat out horror movie,…

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe 17

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  The first time I saw this I realized that no one was saying the word “rape” through the entire film and that it was definitely a conscious choice, but I wondered why. As you get closer to the climax with Al Monroe, it starts to feel like she does this so it hits like a brick when his admission is the first time the word is uttered, only to have that moment stolen from you with... you know. As much as it guts you, I liked that choice.

  Feels like a little bit of the luster is gone on a second watch, but not so much that I don’t still think it’s one of the best films of the year.…

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  Review by ash ★★★★★ 14

  I think he did it but I just can’t prove it

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  Review by Stephanie ★★ 10

  girlbossing sexual assault in this way is my joker moment and I'm not even kidding.

  had a very in depth conversation with friends after this so I don't feel like putting it into words here but this was very frustrating.

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  Review by KYK ★★ 6

  jokette: we live in a patriarchal society

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  Review by ella ★½ 26

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  tw // sexual assault, death

  i’m furious at the idea that a movie that was set out to empower victims really just implied that the most powerful thing that woman could have done is died. it makes me sick to my stomach. the film is triggering and the marketing is extremely misleading. this movie treats the female characters quite poorly and the male ones mostly get away with a slap on the wrist. in the minds of the film makers the death of a woman is just a plot device to punish a man. make no mistake this movie is for cisgender heterosexual men. victims and people whose lives have been affected by sexual assailants deserve so much better than this film.