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The Assistant (2020)

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The Assistant (2020)
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The Assistant (2020)

2020 | Drama

85 mins United Kingdom

A look at the day in the life of the assistant to a powerful corporate executive.

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Produced by Bleecker Street Media
Director Kitty Green
Writer Kitty Green
Cast Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen and Kristine Froseth

Main Image Courtesy: Bleecker Street Media.
Background Image Courtesy: Bleecker Street Media.
Images And Data Courtesy Of: Bleecker Street Media.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.

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Added this item on Dec 5, 2019

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Erika (17789 KP) rated

Feb 29, 2020  
The Assistant (2020)
The Assistant (2020)
2020 | Drama
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
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The Assistant is a thinly-veiled Harvey Weinstein inspired film... Funny how it didn't get as much attention or promotion as Bombshell.
This film was quiet, and follows an assistant of a film producer, who is never shown on screen. She performs monotonous tasks, attempts to eat (though, she always ends up throwing out the food - if you're a lowly assistant low on money, you don't pitch food), and gets lectured by her coworkers and boss. She sees indications that her boss is a dirt bag, but when she attempts to report these concerns to Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), they're not really taken seriously.
The theater was about a quarter of the way through, and I was probably the youngest person there. One of the elderly gentlemen said in a loud voice, "That's it?" It was definitely a frustrating ending, but that was very much true to life, so I thought it was fitting.
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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated

May 24, 2020  
The Assistant (2020)
The Assistant (2020)
2020 | Drama
9
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Julia Garner's performance (1 more)
The tension that manages to be created through a portrayal of the mundane
Dialogue is often difficult to understand (0 more)
The movie seems to have a lot of haters on IMDB (a rating at the time of writing of 5.9)... but I refuse to follow "the pack" on this one... I thought it was great. It manages to make the mundane incredibly tense. This is this first (semi-)fictional feature from documentary-maker Kitty Green.... and in my book she does a knock-out job.

We first meet Jane (Julia Garner) at 'God-knows-what-o-clock' in the morning as she arrives at her workplace - a New York film-production company. First to arrive every morning, she turns on the lights, turns on the screens, makes the pot of coffee and cleans off stains from her boss's couch. The stain isn't coffee. A lost gold bracelet is recovered.

For we are in a truly toxic working environment here. 'The boss' - clearly modelled on Harvey Weinstein - is a bullying tyrant who can reduce Jane and her two male assistants (Jon Orsini and Noah Robbins) to quivering wrecks. "WHAT THE F*** DID YOU SAY TO HER" barks the boss down the phone at Jane, after she has had a perfectly reasonable phone conversation with the estranged Mrs Boss.

The toxicity is pervasive though throughout Miram..., sorry...., 'the company'. Jane is almost invisible to her other co-workers who don't give her eye-contact even when she's talking to them and barely register her presence when sharing a lift.

But bullying and workplace toxicity is just part of this story. A steady stream of starlets arrive in the office, like meat deliveries to a butcher. In a chilling sequence, the photocopier churns out photos of beautiful actresses.... a paper-based equivalent of swiping-left or -right in the selection process. None of the "if you... I will" discussions are shown, but they don't need to be: the inference is clear.

Jane is smart, slim and pretty... but not in an obvious 'Hollywood way'. "You'll be OK..." says a co-worker "you're not his type".

But someone who distinctly is "his type" is Sienna (Kristine Froseth), a "very very young" aspiring waitress-come-actress from Boise, who suddenly and unexpectedly arrives as a "new assistant"... to be promptly put up in a swanky hotel room. It's time to act... and Jane approaches the company HR manager (Matthew Macfadyen)....

An old Spielberg trick is to increase tension by keeping the "monster" hidden from view: cue the tanker driver from "Duel" and (for most of the film) the shark from "Jaws". Here, the boss is felt only as a malevolent force and never seen on screen. It's an approach that works brilliantly, focusing the emotion on the effect he has on those flamed.

There is also recognition that these powerful people are also hugely intelligent and manipulative. Seeing that Jane is a valuable asset, the public berating is sometimes followed up with a private email apology.... dripping a few words of encouragement and praise like a few drops of Methadone to a drug-addict.

This is an excellent movie and thoughtfully and elegantly directed. Following a normal day in Jane's work life.... albeit a day where perhaps the penny finally drops... is immersive and engaging. And at only 88 minutes long, the movie never outstays its welcome.

The performances are first rate. Julia Garner is magnificent, and in a year where the Oscars will be "interesting", here's a good candidate for Best Actress I would suggest if not Best Picture. Garner's an actress I'm unfamiliar with: the only one of her previous flicks I've seen was Sin City 2.

Also oily and impressive is Matthew Macfadyen as the HR manager. There's also a sparse but well-used score by Tamar-kali.

The one area I found poor was in the sound design. It's clearly filmed in an office environment, rather than on a sound stage, and unfortunately the combination of the acoustics and the New York accents makes some of the dialogue really difficult to hear. An example is a discussion between two co-workers in an office kitchen, which was completely indecipherable for me.

Should I watch this? In my view, definitely, yes. It's chilling and an insight into the terrible ordeal that many professional women in the film industry, and other industries, have had to put up with before the "Me Too" lid was blown off (and many probably still do). The most telling line in the film? At the end of the "Thanks" in the end-titles: "All those who shared their experiences".

(See the full graphical review at One Mann's Movies here https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/05/24/one-manns-movies-film-review-the-assistant-2020/ . Thanks).
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Andy K (10823 KP) created a video

Dec 5, 2019  
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