A Dive into Female Revenge Films!

Are you a fan of thrilling dramas with female lead roles? Say no more, this post has everything you need. Today, I am analysing three films in this category…

• Promising Young Woman, (2020) directed by Emerald Fennell,

• Suckerpunch, (2011) directed by Zach Snyder,

• Red Sparrow, (2018) directed by Francis Lawrence,

I’ve quite literally spoken my mind on this subject as I’ve completed this analysis in podcast form. Perfect for all you busy listeners who don’t have time to sit and read a student’s opinions on film.

Script:

Hello and welcome to the SpendSomeTime podcast, episode 1, with me, Poppy Leverington. Today, the topic of discussion is Female Revenge Films. Are you intrigued? Half asleep? Well, wake up, because the three films of the day are Promising Young Woman, SuckerPunch, and Red Sparrow. These captivating dramas allude to this category of female revenge, and I’d like to analyse these.

Mission Impossible, James Bond, Jason Bourne. All classic action films. Though, I don’t believe that for every one of these films there wasn’t a revenge motive, driving them to kill the bad guy and get the girl. So, how come these are classed simply as action films, yet the likes of any female lead action film is categorised as ‘revenge’. I’m aware I’m nit-picking, but at the end of the day, do we want sexism to become the equivalent to a head-full of lice? No!

Promising Young Woman

Moving onto our first film, Promising Young Woman, directed by Emerald Fennell. This 2020 shocking drama fuels the fire within any female, based around a woman, called Cassie, performed by Carey Mulligan. As she’s journeying for her friend’s justice. The light, colourful iconographic scenery is heavily outweighed by the dark themes. As well as her strong-willed, and dare I say masculine personality.

The cultural background behind this film is that of the rape culture, particularly within a university, the modern nightlife, and the lack of empathetic role models such as teachers, lawyers, etc. Likewise, this is me reading far into the main tone of the film, this tone used as a dark comedy. I don’t believe the film is politically active, looking to cause a revolution. It’s simply a dark comedy disguised with romance and shocking themes to make the audience’s eyes widen. The jarring performance of Carey Mulligan is seamless, and she perfectly emulates the character’s struggle to decipher whether what she’s doing is worth it. The dominant aspect of her characteristic behaviour is the dedication to her friendship with her best friend, Nina. The actions of Cassie imply how deeply caring she is for her friend. Yet, hides all emotion from most of the other characters.

The flow of the plot is quite streaky, Cassie is trying to achieve justice for her friend, Nina, who was the victim of a crime that went under the radar. However, Cassie’s plan is interrupted by a potential love interest performed by Bo Burnham.

In an interview with the cast by Variety, director Emerald Fennell said, “pop culture with women is treated like guilty pleasures, things culture dismisses as silly, such as clothes, make-up, should be treated seriously”. In another interview, Emerald states about the ending that, “I cannot imagine being in a room, threatening a man where it plays out differently. No matter how much we want it to be the case. From Al Monroe’s point of view, you’re a good guy, you love your fiancé, you’re going to fight for your life. For me, it is a film about forgiveness. Nobody comes out of this movie well. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but that’s how the conversation starts”.

The sugar-coated style and glossy colouring over the dark themes are ironic and mesmerising. The unbalanced tone of romance and revenge is unusual and misguiding. Providing divine intervention to the scrooges of society, Cassie is on a path of an expressionistic voyage. 

SuckerPunch

This 2011 psychological drama, I was recommended to watch by a friend. At first, I quickly realised it was produced with a likeness to video game culture. The settings are unconventional, fight scenes are unrealistic, and characters are sexualised. Instantly, tuning me out of the movie. Anything gaming-related I am not the target audience demographic. However, sticking with it, by the end, my opinion had changed, and I will tell you why. With this film, you cannot just watch it at surface level. There is so much more going on, the plot of the film isn’t as it seems to be. Once I caught onto the psychological theme, I enjoyed the concept and style a lot more.

The film follows the main character, Babydoll, who we witness encounter some severe trauma. After her mother’s death, her father figure emits her into a mental institution, where she creates a fantasy world around her. Examples being a brothel as well as separate fight scenes in individual, unusual, locations.

In an interview with the cast, by Movies Ireland. The interviewer asks Emily to show an example of the dance. The dance which we see in the film is alluded to be a sexual dance as the characters are currently in a brothel. The interviewer later states, “to me, it seems it was written by a horny twelve-year-old boy, with all the fantasies for young boys, includes the fantasy of beauty and sexiness”, asking whether making this film was fascinating, liberating, or hard work to get right? The interviewer himself is belittling the female cast members to one perspective that only “horny” young boys would enjoy this style of film. Likewise, Jena Laine Malone (who plays Rocket), replies to this toxicity perfectly, explaining how women can want to be sexy, as well as strong and powerful. Not only being a genre that boys want to watch. The cast members went through months of strength training to gain knowledge in fighting and experience with how to use weapons.

The psychological and metaphorical film may have flopped in numbers, but I believe this is as the critical-minded have analysed the basic elements of the film. Rather than finding the deeper meaning within it. Which is incredibly intricate and can also be perceived in many ways. The big points I noticed were the significance between the sexes in this film as well as youth. The women seem to be more in touch with their emotions, more than the men, and there are young boys in fight scenes. Put simply, these are all to show innocence and hyper-femininity which is presented most with women and youth.

The monologue is particularly useful for clearing up any loose ends in the metaphors of the film. Such as, “The mystery of who’s story this will be…. It’s you, you have all the weapons you need, now fight!”. Such an avid expression for your mental wellbeing and how coping with trauma is destructive. But, with persistence, you can conquer it. The feministic undertones and title of the film can be interpreted however you would like. But, I believe it is a nod to the viewers. Especially as the real gut-punch ending, to me, is that the film may be targeted at you, the viewer. 

Red Sparrow

This 2018 psychological spy drama, with Jennifer Lawrence, is captivating and breath-taking. As her performance as a ballet dancer, Dominika Egorova, who becomes injured and replaced. She must par-take in a decisive career change, where she works for the government, to ensure her unwell mother is financially secure. Directed by Francis Lawrence, Red Sparrow, is a tale of the brutal ambition and violence a spy must endure to become powerful and placid. The shocking sexual scenes of this film create a tense atmosphere, learning that our main character is scarily impulsive. ‘To exploit that weakness with seduction’ is a quote from the film.

In an interview, with BBC London, Jennifer Lawrence was asked about the film in relation to current affairs. She replied with, “I find it really empowering, I think it’s the perfect film for right now”. I completely agree, this film is entirely empowering and portrays women in both an emotive yet strong minded light. The use of dark and uncomfortable scenes shows how brave the main character is to be able to put herself in situations where other people would break down.

In summary, female revenge movies contain the shocking and tense atmosphere of any action or drama film. The concept of femininity, regarding the action genre, has always been taboo. But, if you devour these films, you might find that femininity is another positive feature used to surprise the unsuspecting viewer. In conjunction with the three films I spoke of today, the directors all mislead the audience by showing hyper-feminine behaviours. Such as the main character being a ballet dancer in Red Sparrow, the main character’s innocent name and outfits in Suckerpunch, and the bright pastel colour tones and iconography in Promising Young Woman.