The Assistant (2020)

Film: The Assistant (2020)
Stars: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh
Director: Kitty Green
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Films that would resonate with the #MeToo movement have been a staple in the entertainment industry for many years.  Ranging from 9 to 5 to North Country, movies about sexism & harassment in the workplace have been a revolving story since at the least the 1970's.  That being said, it's a little odd that we haven't seen a movie that directly discusses the movement in its wake, specifically one about the entertainment industry.  That is, until now.  The Assistant, a movie that snuck into arthouse cinemas earlier this year right before the Covid closures, is a picture that directly goes after how the Harvey Weinsteins of the world were able to get away with abhorrent behavior for so long, and the systems that continually enabled them. It's also about one woman's attempts to stop this behavior, while in the process risking her career.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers on Jane (Garner), a young woman who has worked at a film production company for about five weeks.  She and several other assistants (she's the only woman) work for a high-powered producer, and spend most of their day doing scheduling and cleaning his office after meetings.  Her boss frequently derides her verbally over-the-phone, and this is an obvious pattern (in a telling sign, the other junior assistants help her to write her apology letters to him, clearly understanding that this is something they've had to deal with for longer than her tenure).  As the film progresses, it becomes clear that her film producer boss is sleeping with young actresses and the fourth new assistant (whom Jane feels is unqualified for the job).  When Jane decides to go to HR, the Human Resources head (Macfadyen) insults her & insists that she's hurting her career by coming to him with these complaints, even though he's aware they have validity.  At the tail-end of one long day, she calls her father to wish him a happy birthday (her job's long hours have meant that she forgot to call him on his actual birthday), and after hanging up, she looks up into her window, and sees that her boss is having sex with the latest actress she let into his room, confirming her suspicions but with her wordlessly realizing she cannot keep her job & stop this behavior.

The film is intriguing because it focuses not on the women that the producer is harassing (Jane, from what we understand from the callous HR manager, is "not his type"), but on a woman who sees what is happening & tries to make a stance.  We know extremely little about Jane; Garner plays her as an introvert, someone who has ambitions & is competent in her job, but likely will struggle to move up because she doesn't enjoy "playing the game" of the office in terms of looking the other way & enabling a "boy's club."  This allows us to see how the culture of a Weinstein might happen-it wasn't because no one knew what was happening, but instead because the entire power structure is based on someone like Jane not saying anything, as she wants to someday be a film producer.  The film isn't shy about showing the obvious obstacles for Jane (the constant demeaning, the fact that the HR manager almost laughs with derision when she says she someday wants to be a film producer, the cruelty in making her write vapid apologies she obviously doesn't mean), but it does so without acknowledging it out-loud, letting the micro-aggressions build until we in the audience struggle to be able to handle them.

The movie's performances are solid, particularly Garner & Macfadyen.  The film's other characters almost feel plastic to Jane, just figures that float in-and-out without complexity (Patrick Wilson makes a wordless cameo, possibly as himself, to give us a sense in the opening scenes of the stature of this film production office).  Garner gives Jane a toughness that has obviously been worn down by years of struggling to get her foot in the door, and as the film wears, we acknowledge that she views this job as the rare stepping-stone into a better position...even though she must realize that it could just be another dead end.  Macfadyen, so terrific on Succession, also brings elements of that show's Tom to his one extended scene as the HR Manager, someone who has been in the industry longer than Jane, and knows that his job is entirely dependent on the illusion of fairness, not the actual practice of it.  Combined they make a smart, uncomfortable look at what years of harassment can do to your outlook on life.