“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.
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.
In 2017, a series of shattering exposés leveled allegations of sexual assault across the entertainment industry, unearthing a watershed moment and sending powerful predators running for cover. As the courage of outspoken accusers inspired women in all industries to step forward and say “me too,” documentary filmmaker Kitty Green knew she had found the subject for her first narrative film: not the misdeeds of one person, but the entrenched system that supports the many.
Set in the competitive world of film and television production, “The Assistant” captures the universal experience of being at the bottom of the office hierarchy at any company. Garner anchors the film with a quietly powerful tour-de-force performance that will have audiences wondering what they would do in her character’s place. Based on copious research, including scores of interviews conducted by Green with a wide array of workers from across several industries, “The Assistant” is a searing indictment of a system that perpetuates America’s endemic culture of workplace harassment and enables the predators within it.
“A significant cultural statement in cinematic form. An urgent, real-time thriller. Fascinating!” – IndieWire
“Julia Garner’s performance is extraordinary!” – Deadline
“Bold and brave. ‘The Assistant’ feels like a moment of change.” – The Playlist
“Eerily effective. A powerful movie.” – Vanity Fair
“Discrimination by a thousand paper cuts. It speaks volumes.” – Rolling Stone