PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: 4 STARS

Promising Young Woman

It would be easy to suggest that "Promising Young Woman," a new drama starring Carey Mulligan, is simply a "Falling Down" for the #MeToo era but it is much more than that. It has elements of that but it is also an audacious look at rape culture and male privilege that weaves dark humour and revenge into the ragged fabric of its story.

It's difficult to talk about "Promising Young Woman" without being spoilerific but here goes: Mulligan is Cassandra, a thirty-year-old dropout from medical school. She lives at home with her parents (Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge), works at a coffee shop with her best, and only friend, Gail (Laverene Cox).

"If I wanted a house, a career, a yoga class and a boyfriend my mom could brag about I'd do it," she says. "In ten minutes. But I don't want it."

At night she hits the clubs, pretending to be intoxicated, waiting for men to approach her. Just when they think she is at her most vulnerable, she "comes to." "What is this?" says one of the "nice guys" who tries to take advantage of her. "Are you some kind of psycho? I thought you were…" "Drunk?" she says, finishing his sentence.

At home she has a notebook, filled with a list of the men she has encountered and the several names in store for a "day of reckoning."

There's more, but one of the pleasures of "Promising Young Woman" is in its ability to surprise and shock with the story's twists and turns. There is a lot in play here. The action here is fuelled by Cassie's trauma, but writer-director Emerald Fennell keeps the action off-kilter with the introduction of dark satire, revenge, an exploration of toxic masculinity and even some rom com-esque scenes. The culmination of all these disparate components is a film with a strange tone, but a clear-cut point of view. It's social commentary as art and it works.

Mulligan appears in virtually every frame, navigating the story's left turns and holding its centre no matter what is thrown at her. The sense of loss that drives her is always present — she even wears a broken heart pendant — even when she is in control, steely-eyed and ready to rumble.

"Promising Young Woman" is occasionally rough around the edges structurally, but despite its flaws is compelling and surprising.

PIECES OF A WOMAN: 4 STARS

Pieces of a Woman

"Pieces of a Woman," now streaming on Netflix, begins with happy, loving couple Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Shawn (Shia LaBeouf) on what should be one of the happiest days of their lives. In the scene, shot mostly in long takes, Martha is in labour, minutes away from giving birth to their daughter. With their midwife indisposed, a replacement named Eva (Molly Parker), unfamiliar with their case, is sent in her place. By the end of the twenty five-minute pre-credit sequence tragedy has struck, and their lives are forever changed.

Director Kornel Mundruczo sets the bar very high in the opening moments of the film. It is riveting filmmaking, intimately showing Martha and Shawn's anticipation, pain and anguish in real time. The bulk of the film deals with the aftermath as the couple are driven apart by grief and recrimination and it's very strong, but cooler in tone than the opening.

It is interesting to note that "Piece of a Woman" was originally conceived as character sketches by Kata Weber meant for the stage. You can feel the attention to detail that was lavished on each of the characters. They are richly drawn and carefully portrayed by the actors.

A trio of performances tell the story.

Kirby, best known as Princess Anne on "The Crown," digs deep to create a portrait of a person devastated by the loss of her child; someone whose world stopped turning that day. As she looks for closure, there is an intensity that comes from her rage and sorrow manifesting themselves as heartbreak. It is layered, emotionally-draining, award-worthy work.

LaBeouf plays Shawn as an attention-hungry husband. A man trying to move on by forcing his attentions on Martha and, when that doesn't work, he looks elsewhere. LaBeouf is a bubbling cauldron of frustration, about to overflow.

As Martha's mother, an imperious woman hell bent on assigning blame, Ellen Burstyn delivers a tour-de-force monologue about the way mothers raise their daughters that could be a short film all on its own.

"Pieces of a Woman" isn't an easy watch. The performances are raw, real and uncomfortable that exhaust and exhilarate in equal measure.

THE DISSIDENT: 4 STARS

The Dissident

"The Dissident," now available on VOD/Digital, is a detailed documentary that plays like a thriller about the October 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist and political commentator Jamal Khashoggi.

With more than two million Twitter followers, Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian dissident, author, and columnist for The Washington Post, was the most famous political pundit in the Arab world. An outspoken critic of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi lived in exile and, in October 2018, entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to file some papers related to his upcoming marriage.

He never left the building.

We now know he was killed and dismembered with bone saws in the consulate, but it took two weeks and hundreds of headlines before forensic evidence uncovered the brutal slaying and a cover-up that suggested Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's grisly slaughter.

Director Bryan Fogel goes behind the headlines, meticulously sorting through the information and misinformation to provide chilling context to the tragic events surrounding Khashoggi's assassination. Using talking head interviews with the late journalist's friends and colleagues, stylish graphics and even animation, he gives the film a forward momentum that dismantles a global cover-up and culminates in an unsettling retelling of the murder by a forensic expert who coolly reads a transcript made from tapes of the event. It is disturbing to say the least, made more so by the clinical presentation.

The hard-hitting "The Dissident" does not mince words. It occasionally feels like a story that could have come straight from the pen of Frederick Forsyth or John le Carre, but as it examines the machinations of Khashoggi's death, it also paints a picture of his values and love of his country. It is urgent filmmaking that unequivocally points the finger of guilt at bin Salman and wonders aloud about the fate of others who wish to speak their minds in the face of a free speech clampdown. There isn't much new information here, just expertly presented facts.