{"id":8265,"date":"2020-02-21T09:33:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T14:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2020-02-21T09:33:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T14:33:38","slug":"review-the-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=8265","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE ASSISTANT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The sexually abused and harassed ones are having their day; as are their abusers.

Me Too, Time\u2019s Up, books, movies, TV shows \u2013 we\u2019ve read the bestsellers and seen real-life pervs get their comeuppance in the news, then later, \u00a0on TV and in the movies. Truly despicable predators such as \u00a0Fox News executive Roger Ailes has been the subject of one movie, a 7-part TV-drama, AND a documentary.\u00a0 AND a bestseller.

Occasionally a suspected abuser gets away, by dying (Jeffrey Epstein), or by just being untouchable (Prince Andrew) and we still don\u2019t know what will happen to Harvey Weinstein, but to many \u00a0there is an optimistic sense that a very real problem is being dealt with \u2013 slowly, but steadily.\u00a0

In \u201cThe Assistant\u201d, writer\/director Kitty Green tackles the Hollywood culture of sexual abuse from a perspective seldom seen \u2013 the enablers.

The Assistant, played by Julia Garner, is a recent college graduate, the very last hired, and so the lowest in the formal hierarchy of a high-pressure, Miramax-type film company.\u00a0 Yes, Miramax was Mr. Weinstein\u2019s company, run by Himself and his brother Bob.\u00a0

The Assistant, nameless in the movie but listed as \u201cJane\u201d in the credits, \u00a0is driven to her place of work in the dark morning hours. There, she turns on lights, clears off food remnants, empties water bottles, scrubs \u2013 not the floor, but her boss\u2019s stained couch. She finds a lost earring. This is menial work \u2013 is she a glorified custodian? A simple dogsbody?

No, she\u2019s an important fixer. \u00a0She balances schedules, makes plane reservations and hotel bookings, acts like a childminder, tends to somebody\u2019s broken vacuum cleaner. Comforts the boss\u2019s hysterical wife. \u201cIt\u2019s not your fault, I\u2019ll fix it\u201d is her go-to phone refrain.\u00a0

Contact with her fellow workers is harder to establish. Five weeks on the job, Jane\u2019s small talk is so small it\u2019s not even heard. She tries to be polite but comes off as annoyingly compliant. First to work every day, you\u2019d think she\u2019d hang up her bulky winter coat on one of the few pegs offered at the office.\u00a0 Instead, she stuffs the coat, and a voluminous scarf, in an empty desk drawer. \u00a0\u00a0Julia Garner is so efficient at diminishing Jane it comes as no surprise that the two slightly more established assistants who share her cramped office \u00a0(they are reading screenplays! dealing with Authors!) \u00a0pelt her with paper balls when they want her attention.

They do pity her, though, when the Boss \u2013 referred to, reverentially, \u00a0as He, His, and Him throughout the movie – hollers angry reprimands on the phone.\u00a0 Having been through this abuse themselves, \u00a0they help the terrified girl compose the expected email apology. In return, she gets creepy messages like \u201cI\u2019m tough on you because I\u2019m gonna make you great!\u201d

Jane\u2019s toxic work situation is further inflamed when she is ordered to handle the arrival of an apple-cheeked teen, a waitress from Boise, Idaho that the Bossman has flown in and wants to be installed as his mistress at an upscale hotel. \u00a0And while she\u2019s at it, Jane is to train Miss Idaho how to answer phones, how to use the copying machine.\u00a0 How to be an assistant, in fact.

Unsure of what to do \u2013 Jane has no confidants at work or in her private life \u2013 she turns to the HR department to report her Boss’s unethical behavior towards what she suspects is a minor. A smarmy inhuman resource rep played by Matthew MacFadyen (best known as the reprehensible in-law in \u201cSuccession\u201d) doesn\u2019t see the problem.\u00a0 Is Jane jealous? Concerned she might be \u201cnext\u201d? No worries, Jane is NOT the Boss\u2019s type. Her stories of demeaning custodian work find no purchase either. \u201cThis is a job everybody wants. I have 400 people waiting to take your job. Are you sure you want me to file this complaint?\u201d

If Jane says yes, she might save a young girl from a sexual predator. And sleep well at night.

If she says no, she can continue her dream of becoming a movie producer. And, turning as complicit as her coworkers, maybe she\u2019ll finally be accepted by them?

\u201cThe Assistant\u201d is a short movie, barely 90 minutes long.\u00a0 It\u2019s claustrophobic, taking place in a very small office where Jane spends what looks like 16-hour workdays, scurrying from desk to copying room, to kitchenette where unhealthy cereals and microwaveable await.

Julia Garner is an excellent plain Jane assistant, taking on the hue of the production\u2019s pale green.

One of the executive producers of \u201cThe Assistant\u201d is Abigail E. Disney, Roy E.\u2019s grand-daughter.\u00a0 Last year, when she demanded better pay for the workers at Disneyworld and Disneyland, she became the proud recipient of the ClassTraitor award.

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Writer\/director Kitty Green tackles the Hollywood culture of sexual abuse from a perspective seldom seen \u2013 the enablers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[79,141,1923],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-drama","tag-metoo","tag-sexual-harrassment","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8268,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions\/8268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}