The Assistant

Name: The Assistant
Genre: Drama
Released: January 31, 2020
Duration: 87 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Alexander Chaplin, Bregje Heinen, Clara Wong, Dagmara Dominczyk, Devon Caraway

2020

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 71 Ratings

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4.9

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4.9	Your Score
4.9	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 71 Ratings

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The Assistant

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Movie Details & Credits

Bleecker Street | Release Date: January 31, 2020 | Not Rated

Starring: Alexander Chaplin, Bregje Heinen, Clara Wong, Dagmara Dominczyk, Devon Caraway, Jonny Orsini, Julia Garner, Juliana Canfield, Kristine Froseth, Lou Martini Jr., Makenzie Leigh, Matthew Macfadyen, Noah Robbins, Purva Bedi, Stéphanye Dussud

Summary: The Assistant follows one day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner), a recent college graduate and aspiring film producer, who has recently landed her dream job as a junior assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul. Her day is much like any other assistant’s – making coffee, changing the paper in the copy machine, ordering lunch, arrangingThe Assistant follows one day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner), a recent college graduate and aspiring film producer, who has recently landed her dream job as a junior assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul. Her day is much like any other assistant’s – making coffee, changing the paper in the copy machine, ordering lunch, arranging travel, taking phone messages, onboarding a new hire. But as Jane follows her daily routine, she, and we, grow increasingly aware of the abuse that insidiously colors every aspect of her work day, an accumulation of degradations against which Jane decides to take a stand, only to discover the true depth of the system into which she has entered… Expand

Director: Kitty Green

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 87 min

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Metascore

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

Alissa Wilkinson

May 3, 2020

It’s one of the best, most gripping, and smartest films of 2020. Read full review

Alison Willmore

Jan 25, 2020

What makes the film such a spare but searingly insightful treatment of the issues at the core of Me Too is the way it refuses to separate its unseen executive’s sexual predation from the larger structures that enable it. Read full review

David Sims

Feb 1, 2020

Green has crafted a hermetic, office-bound world so ambiguous that the moments when she reveals its dynamics directly sometimes come off as disconcerting. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Jan 30, 2020

Treating an incendiary issue in an austere, minimalist manner has turned The Assistant into an arresting independent drama. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Feb 24, 2020

With The Assistant, writer-director Kitty Green offers a top-to-bottom portrait of incremental dehumanization, and, on its terms, the film is aesthetically, tonally immaculate. Read full review

Jocelyn Noveck

Jan 30, 2020

The expressive Garner does a lot with a little. She has no big speeches, no tantrums, no floods of tears. It’s the ultimate unshowy part. If there is a word to describe Jane, it is small. Garner seems to shrink as the day goes on. Read full review

Peter Debruge

Sep 4, 2019

Exasperatingly low-key ... This is no time for subtlety, and yet Green’s film feels so restrained, you’d think she was afraid of being sued for slander. Read full review

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User Reviews

matthewmirliani

Feb 20, 2020

Understated and characterized by frightening realism, The Assistant is a tense, atmospheric, and crucial film that highlights patriarchal toxicity in the workplace and brilliantly places the experience of the victim (and not the perpetrator) at the center of the story. It’s an immersive andUnderstated and characterized by frightening realism, The Assistant is a tense, atmospheric, and crucial film that highlights patriarchal toxicity in the workplace and brilliantly places the experience of the victim (and not the perpetrator) at the center of the story. It’s an immersive and anxious watch - an important mirror to and a stinging commentary on our times. Julia Garner gives an award-worthy performance, while the overcast cinematography and skilled direction perfectly cultivate a feeling of dystopian dread.… Expand

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

katezoe

May 14, 2020

Taking place over one workday, “The Assistant” examines the way everyday slights turn into a horror show of work place harassment. Julia Garner gives a wonderful performance.

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

TVJerry

Feb 23, 2020

This is the first starring vehicle for Julia Garner, who's best known as the plucky blonde trailer trash from Ozark. She plays the assistant to a film executive who slogs thru a day at work fielding calls, making photocopies, fetching food and other menial duties…all this while being ignoredThis is the first starring vehicle for Julia Garner, who's best known as the plucky blonde trailer trash from Ozark. She plays the assistant to a film executive who slogs thru a day at work fielding calls, making photocopies, fetching food and other menial duties…all this while being ignored or abused by everyone around her. Her gradual disgust with her boss's licentiousness leaves her with a crisis of conscience..albeit rather low key. Garner does a wonderful job of underplaying her character's distress and disgust. Writer/director Kitty Green (whose only other feature is Casting JonBenét) shows an appreciation for the subtlety of sexism and the pressures of success. While it does take place almost entirely in one office on one day, the film still offers an interesting insight into a character coping with toxic work environment.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

JLuis_001

Apr 30, 2020

I might get some **** for saying this but part of this film felt like a cheap narrative resource grab because the Me Too movement was in a very algid point when the film was produced.
And I say this not because I felt the film was bad but because it doesn't go anywhere. The approach is soI might get some **** for saying this but part of this film felt like a cheap narrative resource grab because the Me Too movement was in a very algid point when the film was produced.
And I say this not because I felt the film was bad but because it doesn't go anywhere. The approach is so slow and unsatisfying.

I liked the perspective because it usually doesn't get exposed in this way but it also feels too minimalist for its own good.
I mean it exposes the toxic environment women have to face in the workplace but it doesn't further the discussion at all.
So in a way I kinda wonder why a story like this one that needed more depth doesn't go to the places in needs to go.

Julia Gardner's sober performance and the relevance of the theme will save this film from immediate oblivion but in my opinion; The Assistant doesn't manage to make the statement I feel it believes is making and the end result unfortunately fails to exploit its potential… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

Mangan

May 3, 2020

This film was essentially a fairly dry series of carefully constructed and didactic scenes spelling out topical and well publicised abuses of power, amounting to very little by the time the curtain came down.

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

Pdfortune

Aug 8, 2020

It has a tense feel that didn’t pay off for me. If you like her in Ozark you will likely be disappointed with this bore fest. I was expecting a revenge flick. This could have been a great revenge movie.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

rikrik

Aug 25, 2020

Ms Garner was incredible with what little she had to work with. Yawn, I want my time back.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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74	#74 Best Movie of 2020
81	#81 Most Discussed Movie of 2020