The Assistant is a drama that follows Jane(Julia Garner) an assistant at a film production company in NYC. The film follows Jane over the course of a day as she performs a variety of menial and appropriate tasks, it becomes apparent that her boss(nameless and unseen) is having sex with young women in his office and fosters a culture of sexual harassment.
Garner gives a quiet but intricate performance, able to convey the mundanity of office work but also that absolute dread of working for a volatile predator of a boss. She's competent and reserved but ambitious and you can see the the compromises she believes she has to make on a daily basis in order to do what she wants to do. Not flashy but with significant depth Garner establishes herself, if she needed to in the wake of Ozarks, as a talent to watch. The focus, justly, is almost entirely on Jane and the supporting cast, mostly Jane's male co-workers, don't do much other than telegraph their ugly complicity.
Visually drab and restrained the camera work conveys the drudgery of the office as well as the claustrophobia of Jane's situation. The score is subtle and effective, writer/director Kitty Green puts together a marvelously tight effective piece of work. It's an important film, in the wake of Me Too these kind of stories have incredible value, we cannot forget or look away, however it feels almost clinical in its depiction, there is a tension here in the potential of fiction and simply conveying something that is essentially reality. The viewing is difficult not pleasurable or entertaining, the viewer is left with a recognition of the truth but maybe that's not quite enough.
Immaculately crafted by Green, a powerful performance by Garner, lacking the key ingredient of hope.
Currently streaming on Hulu.
Rent It.
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