In October 2017, news broke about Harvey Weinstein, a powerful and influential movie producer who was accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment and even rape. More than 80 women accused Weinstein of such abuses. In February 2020, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison. However, the 2017 headlines led to more men being accused and the revelation of a systemic culture that allowed for sexual harassment, assault and even rape. Activists wanting to shed light on that culture in hopes of stopping it called themselves the Me Too movement. The movement in conjunction with other feminist movements pushed to expose how mainly women have suffered in various industries that have allowed such abusive men to get away with their crimes. Within the past year now, we've seen several projects in television and film start to address this issue.
Of course, there have been countless TV shows and films that have addressed women who have been victims of sexual assault or even sexual harassment. This film though along with others recently have turned the tables on Hollywood and the media industry specifically. The Oscar-winner,
Bombshell (2019) was a look inside the news media and how this kind of culture can be fostered there. Specifically, it targeted Roger Ailes who was essentially the Harvey Weinstein of FOX News. This film, written and directed by Kitty Green, in her narrative debut, instead targets an unnamed movie producer who is akin to Harvey Weinstein. Unlike
Bombshell, we never meet the Weinstein-like character.
Julia Garner (
Ozark and
The Americans) stars as Jane, a young woman living in New York City. She seems to be fresh out of college, having graduated from Northwestern University near Chicago. She aspires to be a movie producer herself and decided to come to New York to pursue that dream. Right now, she has a job at a movie production company, which is probably akin to the one Weinstein had in New York. Her job is that of "production assistant" or PA. When in the office of the movie producer, a PA's job is like most office secretaries. She's only been with the company for five weeks, but she's pretty acclimated to the work environment and has become seemingly really good at her job.
Green's film takes us through one day in the life of Jane, as she wakes up before dawn and heads into the office. We follow her for the entire day, until she leaves some time past sunset, having worked probably a 12-hour day or more. Through her, we get a sense of that culture, which surrounded someone like Weinstein, how people accepted it and even enabled it. We get a slight bit of push-back to show how people even protected someone like Weinstein, despite knowing the abuses that were occurring.
This film doesn't have a lot of dialogue. It's more about the silence, the silence that is fostered in order to keep these abuses going. The protagonist tries to speak up, but maintaining the silence is a much stronger force. A lot of this film is her then having to deal with the indignities quietly. Green peppers this film with all kinds of awkward silences. The quiet reinforces the awkward often. It's not surprising that we never see the Weinstein-like character here because that's what Green's film is about. It's about the absence of things. Silence is in fact the absence of sound. This film is too about the absence of what's being done or what's needed to be done to stop someone like Weinstein.
Rated R for some language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 27 mins.
Available on DVD and VOD.
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