Bo Burnham – The Other Best Thing About Promising Young Woman

by The Messy Optimist

Continuing with the theme of Promising Young Woman that I talked about in yesterday’s musings…click on link below to read it…

But yeah…the writing, the screenplay and direction by Emerald Fennell and Carey Mulligan’s bravura performance in the film that may get her an Oscar nomination = BRAVO. All absolutely spot on and so well deserved. What can I say that hasn’t already been said in the media out there.

Again – so well deserved and I hope to god that Fennell get nominated for both writing and direction (and not just fucking writing, Academy of Arts – please don’t nominate her just for writing as a consolation prize and you are won’t to do, you jerks)! And I hope that Mulligan WINS the acting Oscar because she is that f…ing good.

But, instead, what – who – I want to talk about today is Bo Burnham.

Who is that, you ask? GOOD QUESTION. I asked myself the same question when I watched the film. There was/is so much conversation about Fennell and Mulligan that I did not read about Burnham very much at all.

And HE SHOULD BE talked about.

Even as I set out to watch what I thought would be a relentless revenge flick about a woman out to get justice for her raped and now dead best friend by a bunch of entitled assholes back in college and was ready for the weight and heavy story to unfold – imagine my surprise when Bo Burnham’s character Ryan shows up in the movie. Not just does he make Mulligan’ Cassie laugh and laugh out loud but he makes us – the audience – laugh out loud with him and, then, fall in love with him. He plays a geeky-but-awesomely cute and charming blast from Cassie’s past. His gentle wooing of Cassie – he recognizes that she has demons and gives her the time and space to come to terms with his interest, genuine interest, in her – is at once masterful and heart-warming.

I had NO idea of the existence of Burnham before Promising Young Woman. I googled him afterward and found out that he is an established comic, a YouTube superstar and is dating director Lorene Scafaria who is close to 13 years older than him. WIN, WIN in my book! And well done, Lorene!

Also – something I found extremely tongue-in-cheek from the director? The story opens with Adam Brody – Brody who was the go-to-guy for Hollywood filmmakers to play the cute-but-nerdy dude who was self-effacing funny with the girls – and we think he will play somewhat of a typical part here as well.

But Brody is just another of the nice-but-jerky assholes the film is full of. I was extremely sad and disappointed when I saw that. I hoped that Brody’s character would be the one who would bring Cassie out of her traumatic inner torturous and angsty self. Brody being an asshole was the end of an era for someone like me who grew up on his likeable characters on Gilmore Girls and The OC.

BUT – I didn’t have to wait too long. Instead – Brody has metaphorically handed over the nice and cute and nerdy torch to Bo Burnham for Burnham plays a somewhat similar role that Brody would once have played. I thought that was so smart and clever of Fennell – whether she intended it to be that way or not.

All in all – TWO very enthusiastic thumbs up to the OTHER incredible character and actor in Promising Young Woman – Bo Burnham.