A few reviews

[Moe_Syzlak]

The Assistant. This is a love it or hate it movie, with most critics falling into the former category and most audience members the latter. I’m with the critics on this one. Taking place over a single excruciating work day in the office of clear surrogate for Harvey Weinstein (though never seen nor mentioned by name), we follow the activities of Jane, the lowliest of his employees. Played to perfection by Julia Garner, a standout in the Netflix series Ozark, Jane is an aspiring producer locked in a demeaning job. She is not a victim of her boss’s sexual predation, but rather a victim of insidious manipulation. She wants to do the right thing and she knows that almost everything around her is wrong, but she’s also ambitious and seemingly alone with her coworkers laughing off their boss’s behavior. I was reminded of the Enron documentary The Smartest Guys in the Room by how characters just laugh in the face of activities they clearly know are wrong.

I’m going to put the rest in spoiler tags.

The climax comes in the form of Jane’s visit to HR. The way it unfolds is just amazing and the HR exec is played perfectly by Matthew Macfayden. It almost seems like something from a horror movie. In fact it could easily be a Jordan Peele-esque horror film if it wasn’t so frighteningly real. The phone call with her father that follows is so heartbreaking I could barely take it.

My only small complaint is that by making this a Weinstein surrogate, we focus solely on that case rather than on the fact that this sort of behavior is all-too-common.

It is stark and slow (which is crazy for a 90 minute movie) and uncomfortable, but it is brilliantly made and acted and one of the best movies of recent years.