Directed by Kitty Green and starring Julia Garner, it is an independent film that shows us a day in the life of an assistant to a powerful man in the film and entertainment industry.
The Assistant is one of those films in which seemingly nothing happens in the whole story, but in reality everything happens.
It is also not a commercial film, it is not aimed at the masses, however, if you are interested in the issue of abuse of power and sexual abuse within the entertainment industry, told from a minimalist perspective and with the approach of a feminist director, this film may be to your liking.
Australian filmmaker Kitty Green writes the screenplay, edits and directs this film, so her take on the subject, her point of view and her message are very personal.
Kitty Green's previous works are composed of documentaries. In 2013 she won an AACTA award for best Australian documentary, for her film Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, where she showed the activism of the Ukrainian feminist movement Femen. Then, in 2015, she would win the award for best documentary short film at the Sundance festival, for the short film The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul.
In 2017 he would win again an AACTA award, this time for the documentary Casting JonBenet, where he conducts interviews and profiles a dramatization of the horrible murder of the girl Jon Benet, which occurred in 1996. A fact that still has no clear culprit and is surrounded by great mystery. This documentary was very positively received by critics, as were her previous works. Now, the filmmaker is in charge of giving her point of view on the sexual abuse case that has recently scandalized Hollywood, for which the all-powerful Harvey is convicted and imprisoned.
What is the plot of The Assistant?
Jane is a recent college graduate who gets a job as an assistant to an entertainment industry executive. Her boss is a powerful person in the system, so important that she even gets invitations to the White House for dinner. Jane's job consists of making photocopies, assembling reports, cleaning, buying coffee and food, cleaning her boss's offices and buying his medications. She is in charge of all the details within that office, where she also has to endure a somewhat hostile environment from her other, mostly male, co-workers. Jane will realize that things happen in that office that are not very normal, suspecting that her boss harasses and uses his power to sleep with all the aspiring actresses who are summoned to the office, where everyone else seems to look the other way.
With a leisurely pace, we observe Jane's work routine as an assistant to a powerful man in a film production company. The whole story takes place in a single day, from the time she is picked up by a chauffeur at her home early in the morning, until the end of the day, when she decides to have a coffee before going home after a long day of work.
It will be the little details that Jane will pay attention to. She starts her work by cleaning her boss's office, where she finds an earring lying on the floor and some peculiar stains on the sofa. We all know what those stains are, even she does, but her job is to clean in silence.
Silence is the only way to keep the job inside that company. Everyone else pretends to be oblivious, but they know things happen there, things that shouldn't be talked about.
Jane must always have enough boxes of pills that are evidently Viagra. She also sees a parade of young actresses or aspiring actresses entering the entertainment industry, who are summoned to meet alone with the head of the production company.
At no point in the film do we see Jane's boss, nor do we know his name. We only hear his voice, in the different situations in which he argues, complains or shouts with other members of the team that make up this successful company.
Although we don't see him, there is no doubt that it is a direct reference to Harvey Wenstein, the once most powerful man in Hollywood, who after the abuses he committed throughout his career came to light, now spends his days in jail.
This is something I liked about the film, that it doesn't need to show a face, or even an act of sexual abuse, for us all to understand who it is about and what goes on in that office.
This, dear readers, is part of the magic of cinema, to show without showing anything. That a lot of things happen where we don't see anything happening. Let us construct and imagine the facts in our minds, each one from the perspective we want.
Jane's relationship with her co-workers also highlights a somewhat hostile environment, where sarcastic and sexist comments are constant in Jane's presence.
She is also a victim of abuse, although it may not seem so, but she must endure the jokes of her co-workers, who seem to have no respect for her and she must also endure the attacks of her boss, when she complains about some mistake she makes, but at the same time the boss reminds her that she is an important part of the team and that she does a good job.
It is clear that Jane and her boss have a passive-aggressive relationship, typical of abusive people who wield power and others are mere subjects whom they can treat as they wish.
Systematic abuse is not possible without a network of accomplices, and silence, looking the other way, playing dumb and saying nothing, are a way of becoming accomplices of the predators. So it has been in all the cases that have been discovered in real life.
This is what Jane discovers, when in an attempt to save the integrity of one of the girls, she decides to go to Human Resources, to engage in a conversation to expose her concerns. Receiving a harsh dose of reality, everyone knows what is going on and no one cares, everyone goes about their jobs and performs their duties, keeping quiet, just as all of Hollywood kept quiet about Harvey for decades.
Julia Garner plays Jane, giving a terrific performance. In a completely different acting register to what we have seen from her before. Here she plays an introverted character, austere in words, but with her looks and silences she transmits absolutely everything she feels. Doubts, grief, helplessness, anger and resignation. It is more powerful what can be said with silences, expressing the pain with dialogues would detract from its rawness. The actress has been nominated for Best Actress by the Boston Critics Association and it remains to be seen if she will be considered for the next major awards.
This young actress is making her mark, choosing excellent projects. She is an actress I love, many know her for her character of Ruth on the TV series Ozark, a character for which she won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress and in that series she plays a phenomenal role, she is my favorite character on Ozark. Although I first saw her in the series The Americans, where she played the daughter of a man who worked for the CIA, and the protagonist of the series had to seduce her, even though she was a girl almost the age of his daughter. A character who had her story arc and appeared in the last season of the hit series.
She deserves any recognition, she is an actress who strives for excellent performances. I hope her career is fruitful and she gives us great characters for years to come.
Among the rest of the cast, we find actor Matthew Macfadyen playing the head of human resources of the company. The actor is known for his character of Tom Wambsgans in the hit HBO series Susseccion. Actor Alexander Chaplin plays Max. Makenzie Leigh is an aspiring actress who knows her way around the office. Kristine Froseth plays Sienna, a young aspiring junior assistant, and the boss has asked to interview her privately, so Jane is worried, as she's the kind of girl her boss seems to like. There are more actors, mostly unknown, who are supporting characters, the central focus is Jane.
The photography helps us to get into the atmosphere of that company and its offices, a cold photography with tones that highlight the intimacy and that state of collective silence in the face of the abuses that are committed on a daily basis. Michael Latham is the director of photography and has worked on the director's previous documentaries.
Some people may find it a boring film and it may even make them sleepy. As I said at the beginning, it is the routine of an assistant, where apparently nothing happens in the whole film. But if we are interested in the subject and we know what happened with Harvey, we will love those little details, which are the proof that many things do happen in the film, only it is not necessary to show them, so that we know what happens.
My Ranking: 3.9/5
Trailer
POSTER
