Promising Young Woman (2020): A Social Problem Film First Draft
From the onset, it would be prudent to note that as Doles (2023) points out, social problem films (sometimes called social-consciousness films, message movies, or other similar phrases) are films that dramatize some set of concerns, which they depict as broadly representative of the conditions of their historical moment (n.p.). Thus, in essence, a social problem film could be conceptualized as one that fuses or blends a wider social conflict with the conflict at the individual level between the various characters depicted therein. The larger social conflict in the case of Promising Young Woman (2020) happens to be victim blaming and failure to respect the choices and wishes of vulnerable women. Rape culture continues to be perpetuated by failure to bridge the gender power gap in as far as decision making...
It could be argued that it is this power gap that promotes women oppression. It is this same power gap that makes some men feel they have justification to take advantage of vulnerable women.
This larger social conflict has been integrated into the conflicts occurring between the films characters by way of the encounters that Cassie has as she pushes thirty. Cassie finds (or inserts) herself into numerous scenarios where her vulnerability (appearing...
…the words of the author, implicit in the very notion of the term social problem is the belief that something can be done about it that the problem has a solution (Maland, 1998, 306).
In the final analysis, it should be noted that Promising Young Woman (2020) remains a good example of a social problem film that lends weight to the social ill that has been highlighted in this write-up. In this case, we are able to identify with the struggles of Cassie at an emotional level and clearly identify the issue that could be considered a problem in the larger social context. Cassies crusade against this particular concern could…
