The Assistant review: A quietly powerful #Metoo drama
Review Overview
Julia Garner
9Dread and tension
8Smarts
8Katherine McLaughlin | On 01, May 2020
Director: Kitty Green
Cast: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Jon Orsini
Certificate: 15
For her first narrative feature (after Netflix documentary Casting JonBenet), director Kitty Green charts a fraught day in the life of a female assistant to a high-powered American movie producer. Inspired by real life stories, this quietly powerful post #Metoo drama makes for taut and uncomfortable viewing as it carefully unpacks the impact of a toxic male personality in the workplace.
Ozark’s Julia Garner stars as Jane, who wakes up before dawn to brew the coffee and carry out demeaning tasks for her boss. She arrives earlier than her colleagues, turning on the harsh fluorescent lighting and cleaning up the mess from the night before in his office – stains on the couch and a delicate bracelet strewn in the middle of the floor.
Jane’s routine is sinister from the start. As the day progresses in the highly competitive workplace, the film settles into an atmosphere of fear and silence. It also specifically picks apart systemic gender issues when it comes to career and ambition. A visit to Human Resources, when Jane becomes anxious for a young actress’ safety, highlights harmful practices and Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen is perfectly cast as the passive aggressive face of the department.
Alongside the relevant, hot-button politics of the movie industry, what’s really remarkable about The Assistant is the way Green uses the artificial office lighting, the confined desk partitions and objects like the humble photocopier to strike a tone of claustrophobic dread. Anonymous women’s faces silently spill out of the machine, subtly pointing to dehumanising casting methods. It seems like women are disposable to the man who sits hidden behind his closed office door, as employees obediently scurry to deal with his every whim. You hear him on the phone or witness his bullying via nasty emails and angry vocal outbursts; his poison permeates every particle of working life.
Like a suspenseful horror film, Green doesn’t reveal the monster in the light of day, but his presence and influence are always felt. The focus is on the psychological effect on Jane and her daily humiliations and how that plays out in a hostile environment. Co-workers chuckle to one another about never sitting on the couch, male colleagues speak to Jane in a condescending manner, and multiple employees are implicated as complicit in one way or another by their silence. Green uses that collective hush and the stifling of women’s voices to speak volumes, crafting a vital and horrifying depiction of unchecked behaviour and abuse of power.