Written and directed by Kitty Green, The Assistant tells the story of a film production office assistant, played by Julia Garner (Ozark, The Americans), and everything she sees in a single day at the office. Her day starts early in the morning before everyone else arrives, and ends late after everyone has left. In between stressful phone calls, fixing the jammed copier, and bringing water to high-powered executives, Jane witnesses several small things that slowly weave a much darker tale about the film industry.
Although I was really excited to see this movie, the decision to show mundane tasks in such great detail got old really fast and having virtually no score didn’t help the situation at all. We’ve all been stuck in what felt like an endless day at work, and usually, movies are made to be an escape from everyday life, but this movie was the exact opposite.
Now, I realize that was the point of the movie as it was inspired by the sexual abuse that runs rampant in Hollywood. We as the viewers are supposed to be shocked by the abuse and cover-ups that happen on a daily basis in many industries, not just film. But the long, slow takes and muted cinematography nearly lulled me to sleep rather than startling me.
The synopsis for the film reads:
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 (Matthew McFayden). 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.
I also included the trailer for you to watch below.
