Tanya’s Score: Good-and-a-half*
Rated: PG
Starring: an Ozark hillbilly
Plot: A typical day in the life of an assistant (Julia Garner) to a powerful movie executive and all the aggression, abuse and monotony it entails.
Tanya’s Verdict: For anyone not understanding how insidious and male-centred most industries can be (and often are), The Assistant is a short-cut view into how these dynamics oppress and manipulate.
Garner’s character is slowly and steadily beaten down through the tasks she must complete, the gaslighting she must endure and the complicity she is forced into. Can she say “no”? Sure. Can she quit? I can only assume. But this movie displays what she has on the line and everything she may lose by not playing along.
The Assistant is full of whisperings you sort of catch, micro-aggressions that may or may not be misread, and vicious hissings of a never-seen big boss man followed by his phoney contrivances to keep his assistant at his beck and call in order to continue doing his dirty work – both literally and figuratively.
This movie was a tough one to shake.
*Four score descriptions: Sh**; Okay; Good; Great