Promising Young Woman | 2020 | R | – 6.6.10

Why is “Promising Young Woman” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong violence including sexual assault, language throughout, some sexual material and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a rape (we listen to a video recording and we hear about it), a few attempted sexual assaults, a few kissing scenes, some flirting, cleavage revealing outfits, an implied murder, a couple of scenes of threats against men that attempt to rape a woman, several scenes of a woman confronting people for their behavior with a couple ending in violence or threats of violence, and over 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

When a woman’s (Carey Mulligan) life is derailed by a traumatic event involving sexual assault, she struggles to make sense of it, as well as people’s reactions to it. Also with Adam Brody, Ray Nicholson, Sam Richardson, Timothy E. Goodwin, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Alli Hart, Loren Paul, Scott Aschenbrenner, Bo Burnham, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Alison Brie. Directed by Emerald Fennell. [Running Time: 1:53]

Promising Young Woman SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A man sits close to a woman on his sofa, kisses her, she says, “I need to lie down” and he takes her to the bedroom where she flops on the bed and he climbs on top of her kissing her; the woman asks repeatedly, “What are you doing?” as the man kisses her and removes her underwear, and she sits up and asks sternly, “Wait, hey. I said, what are you doing,” and the man looks frightened as the scene ends (it is implied that the woman kills the man).
► A man and a woman lie in bed together (clothed) and talk and the man rolls over and kisses the woman (sex is implied). A man kisses a seemingly drunk woman and puts his hand between her knees as she says, “I need to go home” several times and the man persists in kissing the woman, until she speaks clearly and startling him (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A man and a woman kiss tenderly.
► A woman dressed as a sexy nurse (cleavage and bare thighs above stocking tops are seen) arrives at a bachelor party and the men in attendance yell and talk about her being a stripper; she tells a man to sit in a chair, she straddles him and tells him they need to go to a room alone. A woman sits on a sofa in a club and seems very drunk; she is wearing a suit with a short skirt and we see her bare legs to the upper thighs and we glimpse her underwear when she separates her legs. A woman wears low-cut dresses and tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes.
► A woman takes a man to a bedroom and handcuffs him to the bed frame, takes off his shoes and he talks about not wanting to do anything because he is getting married. A woman watches a computer tutorial of a woman applying lipstick to make “blow job lips.” A man sings and dances to a song playing in a drug store and a woman with him seems embarrassed by him.
► Three men look at a woman in a club that seems very drunk and one man says, “If she’s not careful…” and, “She’s asking for it” (implying that someone could take advantage of her condition). People dance in a club and we see men’s hips thrusting as they hold bottles of beer and drinks. A man looks at a woman at a wedding and makes crude sexual remarks about having sex with her. A woman describes another woman having been sexually assaulted and says, “He had sex with her repeatedly in front of his friends,” and we hear that the incident was recorded on video. We hear a recording of a woman being sexually assaulted (we do not see the act). A man asks a woman to his apartment and she becomes upset and leaves. A man talks about texting a number that a woman gave him and that it was actually for a man working on an oil rig and that the conversation became inappropriate immediately. A man talks about “secretly pining for” a woman.” A man talks about being on a date with a woman that pulled a skeleton’s hand out of her groin area. A man makes a joke about worrying that people will misunderstand that he is kissing a child because of the height difference between him and the woman he is on a date with. A woman jokes about needing herpes medication. A woman teases a man and a woman about having sex on the counter of a coffee shop and how to clean up after themselves.

Promising Young Woman VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A woman straddles a man handcuffed to a bed frame, and he struggles when she opens his shirt to carve a name in his skin with a scalpel; they fight, he frees himself from one cuff, she slashes him on the neck with the scalpel, he pins her on her back and places a pillow over her face, and kneels on it smothering her as she struggles screaming until she dies and goes still. Two men burn a woman’s body and we see her hand outside the flames as one man gags and retches (we do not see goo). A woman is shown with blood on her leg, hand and arm and it is implied that she killed a man that was trying to force himself on her.
► A man sits close to a woman on his sofa and moves to kiss her and she says, “I need to lie down”; he takes her to the bedroom where she flops on the bed and he climbs on top of her kissing her, the woman asks repeatedly, “What are you doing?” as the man kisses her and removes her underwear, she sits up and asks sternly, “Wait, hey. I said what are you doing” and the man looks frightened as the scene ends (it is implied that the woman kills the man). We hear a recording of a woman being sexually assaulted (we do not see the act).
► A man kisses a woman and puts his hand between her knees as she says, “I need to go home” several times and the man persists kissing the woman until she speaks clearly saying that she needs to go home; the man becomes alarmed and says, “I’m a nice guy,” and “I think you should leave. I’m really high,” and the woman shoves the man against a wall and threatens him before leaving. A woman lies down on a sofa when a man leaves the room and he seems upset when he sees her, he nudges her to wake her and when he is unsuccessful, he yells and shoves her again startling her awake. A woman leans on a bar and seems to be drunk; a man helps her out of the building to take her to his house where he says his parents are sleeping so they will have to be quiet and she yells at him and threatens him making a reference to a woman in town that carries a pair of scissors that she uses on men (possibly implying castration).
► A man in a car yells at a woman stopped at an intersection when she does not drive on, he becomes increasingly abusive and the woman gets out of her car and breaks his taillights and windshield with a tire iron, as he continues to yell and then speeds away. A man is placed in handcuffs and arrested by police. A woman makes notes in a journal about encounters she has had with men, listing their names and adding hash marks with some in red (implying that she killed those marked in red). A man asks a woman to his apartment and she becomes upset and leaves, kicking over a garbage can as she goes.
► A woman describes another woman having been sexually assaulted and says, “He had sex with her repeatedly in front of his friends,” and we hear that the incident was recorded on video. A woman confronts a man about sexually assaulting another woman and he yells, “I didn’t do anything,” “we were kids,” and “she was into it.” A woman tells another woman that she took the second woman’s teenage daughter to a dorm room where her friend had been sexually assaulted and left her there with three young men that had a bottle of vodka and that they would take good care of her; the woman becomes frightened and upset demanding that she tell her where her daughter was (the teen was not harmed). A woman talks to a man about his having threatened and bullied another woman until she dropped her sexual assault case. We hear a man’s voice ordering a woman a drink and asking her how old she is. Three construction workers call out to a woman from across a street and make crude suggestive remarks and gesture with a tool; the woman stops walking and stares at them until they become uncomfortable, they call her names and walk away upset. Three men look at a woman in a club that seems very drunk and one man says, “If she’s not careful…” and, “She’s asking for it” (implying that someone could take advantage of her condition). Men talk about a colleague complaining about the men conducting business on a golf course and one man explains that she is upset because the golf club does not allow women to play so she is at a disadvantage. A man takes a seemingly very drunk woman out of a club, she stumbles down a flight of stairs, they get into a car together, she puts her head out of the window and the driver seems nervous that she will be sick in his car, but the other man says, “She’s not gonna throw up”; the man asks the woman to go to his apartment for another drink and she does not refuse. A man talks to a woman about women being oppressed. A woman asks her adult daughter, “What kind of person forgets her own 30th birthday?” A woman says, “I have no friends.” We hear that two women dropped out of medical school and two women argue about an event in med school and how one of them behaved; she is dismissive and tries to excuse her behavior accusing the victim of crying wolf, and the other woman leaves. A comment is made about euthanizing the homeless. A woman leaves several messages for another woman after waking up in a hotel room with a man (he’s not her husband) and fearing that “something happened.” A woman talks about watching a video of a woman being sexually assaulted and thinking it was funny. A man says that he had a psychotic episode at work and talks about everyone getting bonuses when they settled cases and that there were people that did nothing else but dig up dirt on people to help them win their cases. A man asks a woman if she is going to hurt him and she asks if he wants her to, he pleads with her to help him and says that he cannot sleep. A woman asks a man if he has ever killed any children while operating on them; he says that children have died during operations. A woman jokingly tells another woman that she should pursue a promotion to a management position and tells her that would keep her from “Stinking up the place with her sad little face.” A man talks about writing a novel and that he keeps picking at it like a scab. A man jokes about having removed the wrong kidney from a cadaver in medical school. A woman jokes about needing herpes medication. A woman talks about a teen girl throwing up on the swings.
► A man orders a coffee in a coffee shop and tells the woman preparing it that she can spit in it if she wants after he makes a derogatory remark about her working there; the woman spits in it (we see goo) and the man drinks from it. We see a stuffed boar’s head mounted on a wall.

Promising Young Woman LANGUAGE 10

 – About 55 F-words, 1 obscene hand gesture, 9 sexual references, 12 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (soul sucking, psycho, strange, stupid, hideous, filthy, he said-she said, regrettable, insane, failure, racist, random creep, miserable, naughty, crazy, idiot), exclamations (gosh, are you [F-word deleted] kidding me, relax, shut-up, oh my gosh, chill out, calm down), religious profanities, 28 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, Jesus, My God, God, God Help Her, Thank God, Jesus Christ, God Only Knows, Lord, Oh My God, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Promising Young Woman SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man snorts cocaine, and a man tries to force a very drunk woman to snort cocaine and when she is unable to the man puts some of the powder on his fingers and spreads it in her mouth. People in a club are shown drinking beers and cocktails, a man gives a seemingly very drunk woman a large drink in his apartment, a woman appears very drunk in several scenes, a woman pours a glass of champagne for a woman and a ginger ale for herself in a restaurant, a man drinks from a bottle of wine, a woman pours liquor in the mouths of several kneeling men at a party, a woman finishes a bottle of wine and orders another in a restaurant, a woman talks about being “day drunk,” people drink wine with a meal, and people talk about getting “blackout drunk.” A man smokes a cigarette in his house.

Promising Young Woman DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Gender roles, sexual assault, drinking to excess, excuses for bad behavior, fate, guilt, taking responsibility, mistakes, revenge.

Promising Young Woman MESSAGE

 – Convincing people to take responsibility for their actions can be difficult.