X
- 2020
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 27 m
- 2020
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 27 m
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, arrangin...
Directed By: Kitty Green
Written By: Kitty Green
- 2020
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 27 m
- 2020
- R
- Bleecker Street Media
- 1 h 27 m
The Assistant
79
5.3
Where to Watch
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, arrangin...
Directed By: Kitty Green
Written By: Kitty Green
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 43 Critic Reviews
79
95% Positive
41 Reviews
41 Reviews
5% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 43 Critic Reviews
79
95% Positive
41 Reviews
41 Reviews
5% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
You leave The Assistant thinking about why some of us are invisible and some of us don’t notice — and about how evil lives in the places from which we look away.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 97 User Ratings
5.3
47% Positive
46 Ratings
46 Ratings
22% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
31% Negative
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 97 User Ratings
5.3
47% Positive
46 Ratings
46 Ratings
22% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
31% Negative
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
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 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.
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(Español / English)
English Abstract
Extraordinary day's work portrait of a punctilious assistant to a powerful film producer.
An immersion in a work environment of abuse and harassment described with surgical precision, with a great performance by Julia Garner.
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Abstract Español
Extraordinario retrato de un día de trabajo de la puntillosa asistente de un poderoso productor de cine.
Una inmersión en un ambiente tóxico de trabajo descripto con precisión quirúrgica, en un abordaje que torna el tema del acoso y el maltrato laboral en algo tan cotidiano como perturbador y con una gran actuación de Julia Garner
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English Review
We share a day at the work of Jane (Julia Garner), assistant to an important film producer, in a company with a work environment that is becoming abusive and toxic.
This is documentary filmmaker Kitty Green's first fiction film, and you can see that look in this extraordinary film.
It is remarkable how the story immerses us in the routine work of Jane, a young university student, efficient and who gives her all, and how little by little she reveals, almost like in a horror movie, what underlies what she is perceiving. The immersion experience for the viewer in this work reality, first harmless, is total. Our point of view is always that of Jane, which allows a “lateral” look at what is being revealed and also feel with her the mistreatment that she herself suffers or perceives.
Jane brings us reminiscences of Elisabeth Moss's Peggy in Mad Men.
All this Green achieves with his surgical detail as a documentary filmmaker, an absolute elegance in the frames, an intelligent use of medium shots or details and a masterful use of the off-field (see footnote).
Due to all these characteristics and the nature of its protagonist, The Assistant is located in the antipodes of the Hollywood scandal (Bombshell, the well-known "based on real events"), making the approach to the issue of harassment and labor abuse much more daily and disturbing.
Julia Garner does an extraordinary and subtle job, with her lonely Jane who is recording and feeling everything that happens around her, all the time on screen and at work, almost without being able to peek into her private life, speaking little and telling us everything .
SEMISPOILER NOTE: we never see Jane's boss, since he always stays out of the field.
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Reseña Español Espaciada
Compartimos un día de trabajo de Jane (Julia Garner), asistente de un importante productor de cine, en una empresa con un ambiente laboral que se va revelando abusivo y tóxico descripto con precisión quirúrgica. Esta es la primera película de ficción de la documentalista Kitty Green, y se nota esa mirada en este extraordinario film.
Es notable como el relato nos va sumergiendo en la rutinaria cotidianeidad laboral de Jane, una joven universitaria, eficiente y que da todo de sí y cómo de a poco va revelando, casi como en una película de terror, lo que subyace en lo que ella va percibiendo. La experiencia de inmersión para el espectador en esa realidad laboral, primero inofensiva, es total. Nuestro punto de vista es siempre el de Jane, lo que permite una mirada “lateral” de lo que se va revelando y también sentir con ella los maltratos que ella misma sufre o percibe. Jane nos trae reminiscencias de la Peggy de Elisabeth Moss en Mad Men.
Todo esto Green lo logra con su detallismo quirúrgico de documentalista, una elegancia absoluta en los encuadres, un inteligente uso de los planos medios o detalle y un empleo magistral del fuera de campo.(ver nota al pie)
Por todas estas características y la naturaleza de su protagonista, La asistente se ubica en las antípodas de la hollywoodense El escándalo (Bombshell, la consabida “basada en hechos reales”), en un abordaje que torna el tema del acoso y el maltrato laboral mucho más cotidiano y perturbador.
Julia Garner realiza un trabajo extraordinario y sutil, con su solitaria Jane que va registrando y sintiendo todo lo que ocurre a su alrededor, todo el tiempo en pantalla y en su trabajo, casi sin poder asomarnos a su vida privada, hablando poco y diciéndonos todo.
NOTA SEMISPOILER: al jefe de Jane no lo vemos nunca, ya que siempre permanece fuera de campo.
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It’s a credit to Garner that, as a character who effectively has no voice, she manages to say so much about Jane’s predicament through posture, pose and gesture.
Treating an incendiary issue in an austere, minimalist manner has turned The Assistant into an arresting independent drama.
Set over the course of a single, very long day, The Assistant derives almost all its quiet power from Garner, on whose face we see confusion congealing into concern.
The Assistant is inspired by potentially scandalous material but subverts expectations, asking the audience to consider the broader societal implications of the crime.
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.
Pretty good and interesting movie. I've for a long time wanted to see a movie that simply covers the mundaneness of life, and while this doesn't do that exactly, as it focuses on the injustices that the assistant faces, but it is still very cool to see in action.
It makes a lot of sense that this movie was better received by critics, it certainly is a movie that requires a lot of patience and I'd imagine a conscious decision to like the movie. On the specifics of the movie, the acting was great, the lead was very sympathetic, and it was beautiful cinematography and in it's simple lingering shots.
Additionally, it was infuriating seeing how she was treated during the movie, which I take as a sign that the movie did it's job, I suppose. But still, so many of the people interacting with her were insufferable and really made me want to punch them through the screen.
All in all, a good film.
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It felt like it was holding back the whole time, like the movie was playing it safe. But it looks beautiful and the performances are thoughtful. I'm a huge Matthew Macfadyen fan, and he's incredible as usual, but underused.
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Perhaps it could be approached in another way, because looking at the film in general it is very linear, and perhaps that is the message that the director wanted to convey. However, the protagonist's anguish and sadness about the life she leads at work is very clear, not noticed by anyone, besides living in an environment composed mostly of men and being controlled by them. This linear form of the plot is what can keep many people from watching.
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This tale of an entry-level movie company production assistant who's witness to questionable behavior by her boss and considers blowing the whistle fizzles when it should sizzle. The message may be important, and Julia Garner's lead performance may be reasonably compelling, but the film itself leaves much to be desired. Instead of offering new insight into a troubling industry problem (and any semblance of hope for the future), writer-director Kitty Green's debut narrative feature stretches credibility by presenting an allegedly savvy protagonist who displays an astoundingly unbelievable degree of naivete. What's more, the supposedly "nuanced" evidence of the transgressions is so painfully obvious that any attempt at subtlety is obliterated. On top of all this, the film's glacial pacing and inclusion of far too much extraneous padding makes this an excruciatingly slow watch, even with its scant 100 runtime. This multiple Independent Spirit Award nominee has been vastly oversold in its restatement of the obvious with no adequate remedies for addressing its core issue. Watch "Bombshell" (2019) instead.
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Production Company
3311 Productions,
Bellmer Pictures,
Cinereach,
Forensic Films,
JJ Homeward Productions,
Level Forward,
Symbolic Exchange
Release Date Jan 31, 2020
Duration 1 h 27 m
Rating R
Genres
Awards
Indiana Film Journalists Association, US
• 4 Nominations
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 3 Nominations
Columbus Film Critics Association
• 3 Nominations
