Movie Review: The Assistant

The Assistant **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Kitty Green.

Written by: Kitty Green.

Starring: Julia Garner (Jane), Matthew Macfadyen (Wilcock), Makenzie Leigh (Ruby), Kristine Froseth (Sienna), Jon Orsini (Male Assistant), Noah Robbins (Male Assistant), Stéphanye Dussud (The Wife), Juliana Canfield (Sasha), Alexander Chaplin (Max), Dagmara Dominczyk (Ellen), Bregje Heinen (Tatiana), Lou Martini Jr. (John), Liz Wisan (Edwina), Clara Wong (Tess).

 

We never meet the film executive obviously based on Harvey Weinstein that the title character, Jane (Julia Garner) works for in The Assistant – and that is by design, and very smart. An actor in that role would likely take over the film, and the conversation around it – and that isn’t what writer/director Kitty Green is going for in her film. This is a movie about the kind of corporate culture that allows someone like Weinstein to thrive and continue to prey on young women, because everyone is too scared to say anything, to do anything, and even if they do, no one will do anything anyway. This is a sad, low-key film – and it runs just 87 minutes – but its cumulative power sneaks up on you slowly, with devastating effects.

 

This is Green’s follow-up to her underrated and underseen Casting Jon Benet documentary – which I thought was wonderful, but didn’t seem to find the right audience. For the true crime crowd, that film was confusing – they thought they’d see another glossy, blow-by-blow of the famed case (as if we need one) – and I think the real audience for the film assumed that was what it was, and stayed away. What it was though was really about how we, as a society, process something like that case – how we know all the players, all the theories, and understand so little.

 

The Assistant isn’t similar to that film except that it takes a different approach to a well-known story. It would be easy to make a Harvey Weinstein film, where the character is a larger than life monster, that everyone in the audience can feel safe in hating. Hell, you may even be able to make a good film out of it. But what Green is going for here is a portrait of the culture of silence that allows a Weinstein to exist for so long.

 

Jane is a smart young woman – an Ivy League graduate, who wants to be a producer one day, and sees this job – as one of three assistants to the Chairman (that the other two are male, and given better responsibilities, is not an accident). She finds herself answering phones, collecting mail, setting up meetings, printing off reports, etc. – the grunt work that needs to be done. She walks silently through the halls; most people don’t notice her – or pretend not to. She is put in impossible positions – having to answer the phones call from The Wife – where no matter what she says, it will be wrong. Or training the new “assistant” – a waitress from Idaho, with no experience, who will have no real responsibilities, and is being put up in a fancy Manhattan hotel (and seems confused that Jane wasn’t put up in one when she started). She also ferries various women to and from the Chairman’s office, or to nondescript conference rooms to sign some sort of agreements – or returning their jewelry that they somehow left in the chairman’s office.

 

It’s clear that everyone knows what the Chairman is doing. They roll their eyes at this parade of young women, complain about the time they have to waste on their acting reels, and playing nice, or making excuses when he is entertaining them. They don’t care. One woman tells Jane not to worry about it – “She’ll get more out of it then he will – trust me”.

 

The most striking scene – the one where the culture comes into complete focus – is when Jane goes to HR – and is ushered into the office of corporate stooge (a perfectly cast Matthew Macfadyen), who also clearly knows what is happening, but makes it very clear to Jane that nothing is going to be done about it. And, to be fair, when he reads back her complaint to her – it’s all just a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really add up to anything. It’s conjecture, and observations, without much backing it up. As she leaves, he tells her not to worry “You’re not his type” he assures her.

 

So Green isn’t making a film about Weinstein – which, to be honest, I’m not sure could be as interesting as this one is. What of interest is there in a film about a powerful, older man acting like a creep, and pressuring young women into sex? We’ve seen that before. What we haven’t seen, in quite the same way, is the entire picture of the culture around someone like Weinstein – of people who don’t do anything, because it would hurt their careers, their standing, and who feel it wouldn’t change anything anyway. They’re not wrong. And yet, of course, they’re all wrong – and by not doing anything, it is allowed to continue for years, without end. This is a powerful, devastating portrait of that culture – and the first great film of 2020.

Movie Review: Casting JonBenet

Casting JonBenet **** / *****

Directed by: Kitty Green.

 

I will admit that as a true crime junkie (mainly in Podcast form, but yes, also in terms of docs) there are times when I feel more than a little guilty as you watch as other people’s deaths are trotted out as entertainment – sand become fodder for people to paw over. I don’t like that aspect of it, but I do think that good true crime can both be entertaining and insightful – meaningful even, and should be done – but I definitely have a line that I draw, when I think people are either making light of or sensationalizing a crime. It really shouldn’t happen.

 

There has perhaps not been any true crime case that has been thought over, sensationalized and exploited more than the murder of JonBenet Ramsey – a six year old beauty queen, found dead in her basement – murdered – and the bizarre investigation that followed, including all sorts of contradictory evidence and facts. Before I even became a true crime junkie, I knew the basic facts of the case, and even though I haven’t really sought out material on this case specifically, enough of what I watch and listen to has covered it that by now, I know more than most, and definitely know too much about it. If there was one case that didn’t need a true crime doc about it – it was JonBenet Ramsey. And that is precisely why Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet is such a great doc – it isn’t really a true crime doc about the case at all. It’s about how we all absorb true crime, watch, observe and filter true crime through our own experiences. If you know nothing about JonBenet Ramsey, this isn’t the place the start (perhaps seek out the episodes of the podcasts Generation Why? or True Crime Garage about the case - avoid almost all of the trash TV, especially the garbage from last year on it). It’s something far greater than that.

 

In the film, director Green heads to Boulder Colorado, and puts out a casting call for local actors to come in and audition for any role associated with the case – mostly, it’s people playing parents John or Patsy Ramsey, although there are a few playing brother Burke, various police officers, the Santa Claus from a recent party some think may be involved in a bizarre conspiracy theory, or the creepy man who confessed the crime when he clearly didn’t do it. There are shots of little girls playing JonBenet – but unlike everyone else, they don’t really talk to the camera – they remain silent, dancing little beauty queens. When the actors arrive, Green explains what she’s doing – not really making a docudrama about the case, as much as a documentary about them, as they prepare to play the roles. Green asks them what they think about the case, who they think these people were. They offer their own theories – most of them fairly straight forward (it was Patsy, it was John, it was Burke, it was someone outside, etc). – and most fascinating, they offer their reasons why they think that’s the case. For the most part, it’s linked to something from their own past. The woman who was abused by her father, thinks it was John – they had the same demeanor of projecting an outward appearance of normalcy. The woman who remembers gets so angry at her son wetting himself that it scared her, thinks it was Patsy. The film then delves even deeper, as it does have these various actors and actresses “play” these characters in some scenes, and what effect that has.

 

Casting JonBenet then is something different than a true crime doc – which is a relief. We don’t need more talking heads analyzing the same evidence that every other doc has done. This is something different – it becomes a portrait of the captive audience for these stories, and how we filter than information. It is also a performance piece about acting, and how these various actors – none of which you will likely recognize (there was one woman auditioning for Patsy Ramsey that looked familiar). But it’s also a portrait of Boulder, and how small town it can feel, as there are various intersections between the people there, and the Ramsey’s themselves.

 

That’s a lot to pack into one documentary – but Casting JonBenet pulls it off wonderfully – and in less than 90 minutes. This is a haunting, memorable doc – one that kind of sneaks up on you a little bit. We get lots of true crime docs – some good, some bad – many will fade from memory. You’ll remember Casting JonBenet.