The Ozark and The Americans star Julia Garner shines in writer-director Kitty Green’s beautifully understated new #MeToo drama The Assistant. Set amongst the highflying world of a fictional New York film production company, this chilling drama revolves around a day in the life of a young assistant and the abuse she receives at the hands of her overpowering and arrogant male boss.
Recent college graduate Jane (Garner) has aspirations of one day becoming a film producer, but for now she has to content herself with being assistant to a powerful New York film mogul. We follow Jane on a typical day at work as she is expected to deal with unreasonable demands, bullying and daily admonishments from her boss and assorted male colleagues.
When a naive young woman (Kristine Froseth) from Boise, Idaho arrives at the office claiming to have been offered a job by Jane’s elusive boss - said boss remains unseen throughout the film - it soon transpires that some deeply alarming ongoings have been taking place behind closed doors. As more models, actresses and wide-eyed hopefuls are paraded in front of her, Jane must decide whether to blow the whistle or carry on as normal.
Usually known for her brilliant work in the documentary field, Green manages a tour de force here without resorting to reductive expositional devices. This is perhaps the most admirable thing about the film itself; it is a classic lesson in the idea of “show, don’t tell”. The fact that every aspect of the darker and more depraved actions performed by the unseen boss, and for which Jane is expected to cover, are solely implied, is what sets the film aside from anything we’ve seen before.
Unlike Bombshell - this year’s other explosive #MeToo drama which chronicled the abuse scandal at Fox News - there are no big names or grandiose production values behind The Assistant. It is ultimately this minimalistic quality which gives the film the upper hand over Bombshell’s more bombastic and in-your-face approach.
Garner gives a precise and wonderfully sedate turn as someone who unbeknownst to her has been covering for her boss’s most depraved behaviour. As Jane slowly realises her own failings, Garner truly comes into her own by portraying her as a troubled young woman struggling to make the right call.
This is an impressive study of the culture of silence surrounding daily workplace abuse. Green excels at instilling a sense of dread as she presents wave after wave of shocking revelations in a story which, unsurprisingly, ends not with a bang, but with a slow realisation that things won’t be resolved overnight.
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