
In dark comedy Promising Young Woman, Carey Mulligan plays a woman who fools men into believing she is too drunk to consent to sex.
The film - the type that stays in your mind long after you've finished your popcorn and left the cinema - explores consent and rape culture, as Mulligan's character Cassie avenges her best friend.
Watch: The trailer for Promising Young Woman. Post continues below video.
In a review for Variety, a major entertainment publication, critic Dennis Harvey questioned Mulligan's casting and if she was attractive enough for the main role.
"Mulligan, a fine actress, seems a bit of an odd choice as this admittedly many-layered apparent femme fatale – Margot Robbie is a producer here, and one can (perhaps too easily) imagine the role might once have been intended for her. Whereas with this star, Cassie wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on," the review read.
A year on from its initial publication, the review has found itself criticised by Mulligan, fans, other critics and Variety itself.
The internet has criticised the appearance of Harvey in return, Variety has apologised and critics are writing reviews about a review and the fallout.
"I wasn't hot enough."
Mulligan read the Variety review, and she could not stop thinking about it.
She told the New York Times in a December 2020 interview: "I read the Variety review, because I'm a weak person".
"And I took issue with it," she said. "It felt like it was basically saying that I wasn't hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse."
Originally published in January 2020 after Promising Young Woman's debut at the Sundance Film Festival (its mainstream release was delayed until December due to the pandemic), Variety have since added an editor's note to its review.
"Variety sincerely apologises to Carey Mulligan and regrets the insensitive language and insinuation in our review of Promising Young Woman that minimised her daring performance," it now reads at the top of the page.
It's an ironic (and depressing) situation, given the subject matter.
"It drove me so crazy. I was like, 'Really? For this film, you're going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?' I just couldn't believe it," Mulligan told the Times, worrying that people would read a review critiquing an actor's appearance and accept it as normal.
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