Exclusive: Watch a Clip From the Harvey Weinstein-Inspired Horror Film, The Assistant – Vanity Fair

Shortly after the first allegations against Harvey Weinstein broke in 2017, documentary filmmaker Kitty Green decided to make her first narrative feature, about a young woman steeped in the kind of abusive corporate culture former Weinstein employees described. (Weinstein, whose sexual assault trial is wrapping up in New York, has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.) After speaking to nearly 100 peoplefrom different fieldsGreen wrote a fictionalized script pulling from the many disturbing accounts she heard. The result: The Assistant, which tracks a day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner), a recent college graduate working as a junior assistant to a powerful, abusive (and unnamed) movie mogul in Manhattan.

Janes conscience weighs increasingly on her as she tolerates a series of degradationsand sees the signs that her volatile boss is leveraging his power against other women in unfair and potentially criminal ways. In the exclusive clip below, an isolated Jane calls her mother and tries to connect after being berated by her boss on the phone.

Green has said that it was important for her to explore the complexity of abuse that can poison offices. [Jane]s verbally abused by someone who abuses everyone in that place, even the higher-up people he deals with, Green explained in the films production notes. A lot of the film is reflective of workplaces where sexual abuse and harassment might be absent, but the same kind of daily emotional abuse and exploitation are the norm.

Green said that it was important for her to use The Assistant to address the grievances she heard about from the women she encountered.

The women I spoke with all discussed their frustration with the machinery that surrounded these predators and the culture that supports violence and discrimination against women, Green said. I believe challenging the system that allows these predators to thrive is an important step in bringing about the change that the #MeToo movement is focused on.

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Exclusive: Watch a Clip From the Harvey Weinstein-Inspired Horror Film, The Assistant - Vanity Fair

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero