Following in the footsteps of other Focus Features theatrical releases from 2020, Promising Young Woman will soon be getting a VOD release less than a month after the movie arrived in theaters.

Focus Features has announced January 15, 2021 as the Promising Young Woman VOD release date. The film is currently playing in theaters across the country, where it opened on Christmas Day. But since Focus Features falls under the Universal Pictures banner, they’re taking advantage of their new strategy of shortened theatrical windows to get the movie to a wider audience on VOD. The same strategy was employed last year with Focus Features releases of Come Play and Let Him Go, not to mention Universal’s The Croods 2: A New Age and Freaky.

Promising Young Woman has been popping up on a lot of year-end lists naming the best movies of 2020 (including the list of our own Ben Pearson), so it’s good that Focus Features is making it available to audiences without forcing them to venture out to theaters. Though there haven’t been any large spreads of coronavirus linked to movie theater attendance (likely because it’s still rather limited), it’s just safe to stay home until the COVID-19 vaccine has become more readily available and widespread.

For my money, Carey Mulligan gives one of the best performances of the year in Promising Young Woman, being exquisitely menacing without being outright brutal. Though the ultimate conclusion of the film does come with a certain sense of satisfaction, it also comes with the need for a heightened suspension of disbelief. But taking into account how the film approaches its subject matter and puts forth such a powerful story of trauma through the lens of revenge, it doesn’t really ruin the film’s impact.

If you haven’t heard much about Promising Young Woman, watch the trailer and read the official synopsis:

From visionary director Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve) comes a delicious new take on revenge. Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan) was a promising young woman… until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be: she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story.

Check out our review of Promising Young Woman right here, and see where you can catch the movie over here.

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