First Hit: It is no coincidence that this film is out during the Harvey Weinstein trial.
This is a powerful film for numerous reasons. The most compelling aspect for me was that we never see the studio head, the person who has everyone in the story intimidated and contrite towards him. It is an essential and scary message. Another reason is that we are reading about Weinstein’s trial in the newspaper for the past week, and he’s been accused of doing just what this film is about. Then there is the way this film uses the unspoken issue about predatory sexual behavior to intimidate, coerce, and manipulate people.
The story begins by following Jane (Julia Garner), assistant to the studio head, from her early morning ritual of leaving her apartment and going to the office in downtown New York City. Entering the office, she’s the first one there. She prepares, prints, and distributes reports. Then she turns on the lights on the rest of the floor and goes to the boss’s office to clean up after him. This includes picking up an earring, wiping crumbs and stuff on the desk, and tellingly, cleaning off stains that are on the couch, which we suspect to be from a sexual encounter.
As the story moves on, other office workers arrive, they all carry an air of fear, afraid of doing something wrong. We hear mumbled raised voices coming from behind the closed office door of the boss.
Phone calls are taken, plans rearranged, people don’t smile. Jane gets routed a call from the boss’s wife, who complains that her credit cards won’t work, gets angry at Jane’s attempt to placate her, and hangs up. The boss calls Jane and yells at her. The audience barely hears the mumbled yelling on the phone call. Jane’s response is to type an email to her boss stating that she is sorry and it will never happen again.
This type of intimidation is the theme throughout the film.
The climax of Jane’s concern happens when she escorts a “new assistant,” Sienna (Kristine Froseth), to a posh hotel. Sienna tells Jane that she was waitressing in Boise, Idaho when the boss told her she should come to NYC and become one of his assistants. We then learn that the boss leaves the office to visit Sienna at the hotel. When Jane takes her concern that the boss is misbehaving to the head of Human Resources, she once again gets intimidated. Inappropriate sex by the boss is never said but implied, and, as a final insult, Jane is told, “Don’t worry. You’re not his type.”
The way this film is shot feels almost voyeuristic. We don’t see the boss. We only follow Jane. We carefully watch her actions, and all the conversations she has on the phone are muffled, barely audible. When the door is closed and the boss is yelling, we hear some of the swear words and when the boss is with a woman, we hear muffled laughter and other noises.
Garner is phenomenal. The way she internalizes her fear, her sadness, and disdain is expressed to the audience with subtle mouth movements and very expressive eyes. Everyone else is strong in their roles, but their characters are minor and don’t warrant a mention here. Kitty Green wrote and directed this excellent portrayal of intimidation and predatory sexual abuse.
Overall: The impact of seeing this film stayed with me through the next day.