The Assistant Movie Review

Do the women in your office a favour, and watch The Assistant.

by Kumari Tilakawardane
Movies & TV Shows Review

8

Recommended
The Assistant Movie Review

A subtle drama that gets under the skin of the #MeToo movement.

There was a time when a drama about working for a Hollywood film mogul and starring an up-and-coming young actress would have likely been a lively, potentially even comedic romantic comedy. That time (thankfully) has past, and we now – like it or not – live in a post-#MeToo era, one in which the widespread abuse of power that’s been smouldering at the heart of most high and mighty institutions for decades has been revealed.

In peeling back the flimsy, almost completely transparent film that covered up these transgressions, the #MeToo movement also made space to tell other stories. The perspectives and points of view of previously overworked, underpaid and overshadowed workers in the conglomerate totem pole are now fair game for scripts.

One such perspective is that of Jane in The Assistant, streaming on various platforms now. Jane (Julia Garner, known for her Emmy-winning turn on Ozark) is a highly-motivated and intelligent grad who’s got her foot in the door of the entertainment biz with a junior role at the office of an unseen, unnamed high-flying exec.

 

The Assistant isn’t an easy or enjoyable watch by any means, but it contains one of the most important storylines and one of the best performances of the year 

Jane’s job is shown to be little more than menial task after menial task, though not without its challenges. The early scenes where we follow Jane day-to-day are ones we’ve seen before in other office-based films; she gets complicated coffee orders, she replaces the printer paper, she makes phonecalls. Then it gets sketchy. 

When the head honcho is out of the office, Jane edges in to clean up his mess. This includes powdery residue smeared across his desk, clearing used needles out of his bin, disposing of anonymously abandoned earrings and attempting to wipe away ominous stains from the soft furnishings. Jane is also shown having to be the intermediary between the mogul and his wife, who he’s obviously serially cheating on.

The Assistant

Filmmaker Kitty Green (who made unsettling doc Casting JonBenet) makes sure we get to see all the little insidious ways Jane’s self-confidence is battered by the corporate culture, from when she’s told offhandedly that she has the potential to be great (and the implication that she just has to go that little bit further) to the toe-curling meeting with slimy HR manager Wilcock (Matthew MacFadyen). Green’s decision to keep the bully boss off screen is searingly brilliant, both as a narrative device and as a comment on the shadowy anonymity and chilling ubiquity of this kind of abuser.

Garner has very few actual lines of dialogue, but manages to convey multitudes with a fantastic physical performance. A combination of her astute choices in posture and expression plus Green’s emotive direction – which somehow manages to appear to be both passive and pointed at the same time – make for a fraught and tense film, in which you could argue not much actually happens on screen. 

Green focuses her attention on Jane’s experience in an office full of co-conspirators with increasing tension. From the early scenes of office clean up to actually going to Wilcock to voice concerns about new recruit Sienna (Kristine Froseth), we’re privy to how Jane’s concern rises from the recesses of her consciousness to full blown panic. Cinematographer Michael Latham conveys the mundane dreariness of this environment with a palette of flat greys and dull beiges. 

You can’t argue it’s an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but The Assistant is a really captivating drama that’s quite clearly based in some serious fact. That doesn’t take away from its theatre though – Garner’s performance alone keeps things fascinating, as we watch her squirm and clench through excruciating displays of at best misbehaviour, at worse outright abuse.

 

Green’s decision to keep the bully boss off screen is searingly brilliant, both as a narrative device and as a comment on the shadowy anonymity and chilling ubiquity of this kind of abuser

Green, in conjunction with her crew, does an excellent job in conveying the message of invisibility, compliance and accountability. For large parts of the film, Jane is silent, watching wide-eyed as her faceless boss and his minions go about their unsavoury business. It plays almost like a documentary about abuse – it’s sombre and in no way glamourised, and lots of the film involves the minutiae of office work.

The Assistant isn’t an easy or enjoyable watch by any means, but it contains one of the most important storylines and one of the best performances of the year. It subtly engages the viewer to think about the importance of advocacy, and speaking out, and standing idly by – when Jane has to consider whether in being a silent Assistant she’s simply silently assisting a gross abuse of power, it’s profound. 

Needless to say, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s probably not the sort of uplifting content lots of people are seeking at the moment. However, with lots of people stepped away from their working environments and office hierarchies, it would seem to be the perfect time to start examining how structures work to silence victims and value certain voices over others. Do the women in your office a favour, and watch The Assistant.

Scores

Verdict

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8

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