Movie Review – The Assistant

After seeing a pretty intriguing trailer, I decided to watch the 2020 film The Assistant which was written and directed by Kitty Green. Described as a ‘thriller’, the movie follows a junior assistant, Jane and “her daily routine; she grows increasingly aware of the insidious abuse that threatens every aspect of her position,” described by IMDb. 

However, after seeing the film, the trailer and feature dont add up. Jane is a quiet girl, often with a look of stress on her face, and doesn’t carry a large presence in the office. The pace of the movie is slow and methodical. It follows Jane throughout her day from cleaning up meeting rooms to taking countless phone calls. She has very little dialogue throughout the entire movie, which allows for the noise of a workroom to take a larger presence. Hence, when watching the trailer over again, almost all of the dialogue used in the film was used in the trailer. The trailer made The Assistant seem like a movie with a high paced story line with large consequences at stake. Instead, the film shows the realness of a company’s work life. One filled with hushed talking behind closed doors, high expectations from colleagues, and the invisible hierarchy of status among coworkers. This movie feels very similar to Roma which was released in 2018. These movies follow a simple storyline, but somehow hit just a little closer to home. As a female wanting to work in an industry run by men, The Assistant gave a stark reality to what goes on behind closed doors. 

Although mostly silent, the film feels incredibly loud. With great sound mixing, the sounds of the office feel almost overwhelming, and the harassing phone calls feel just as personal as if I was answering them myself. Almost expressionless, Julia Garner is able to capture the minute facial expressions one might have. This silence for most of the film allows these conditions to become more pronounced, and her small actions to become more noticed.

The technical aspects of the film were great. The long reaction shots spent on Jane’s face allows us to soak up her true (but minute) emotions. Art direction wise, the use of mostly white/gray/black furniture, with only small pops of color shows the bleakness of the job that she considers her ‘dream’. I mentioned the sound design earlier, but I felt like it played a very strong role in this film, and was executed in a way that wasn’t obvious, but made you hyper aware of her surroundings. 

Lastly, The melancholy ending isn’t fulfilling, but incredibly real. However, this doesn’t account for the lack of ‘action’ within the storyline. This film felt more like a heightened ASMR ‘day in the life’ youtube video instead of a 87 min feature. The misleading trailer made me anticipate higher conflict and stakes rather than concern and ingenuine consolidation. Personally, this movie felt powerful in explaining the toxic power dynamics in a company, but seems unfulfilling as Jane couldn’t stand up for herself for most of the film. 

This is why I rate the movie an overall 6.5/10 

I could definitely watch it again, but it wouldn’t be one that I would make my parents sit through.