In Kitty Green’s The Assistant, the slow simmer of impending doom permeates the film. Its 87 minute runtime still manages to pack a whole lot of quandaries, both for our protagonist and for the audience once they leave the film. The film has so much to sift through, and it proves there are no easy answers.
THE PLOT
First one in, last one out. Jane (Julia Garner) is an assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul. We see her life for a day. We see the monotony. All of the office work, the phone calls, the emails that seem to take up a good chunk of anyone’s day at work. We see the treatment of assistants. The assistant practically lives at the office, keeps the whole ship going. But they are regularly ridiculed, required to do even more well outside of their job descriptions, and the lack of recognition they receive for keeping the engine running.
More importantly, we see the culture. Jane is one of a few women invited to join the boys’ club. She is surrounded by men and is expected to assimilate or remain silent. When a new, younger woman with no experience joins the team, and said new employee is invited to speak with the boss at a hotel room, Jane suspects something nefarious is going on. When she attempts to protect this young woman, her peer, and is confronted with complacency, conforming, and gaslighting.
IS TIME REALLY UP?
Much of The Assistant feels like the precursor to a Vanity Fair or Hollywood Reporter headline about another studio exec being outed as for workplace harassment and sexual assault. As of late, this is not a new story. Frankly, it has never been a “new” story. Toxic masculinity is not some new thing to exist. It is present in every facet, every work environment in various levels.
The entertainment industry has a long history of toxic workplaces and men abusing their power, and thus abusing (primarily) women in the industry. After the fall of Harvey Weinstein, the industry acted like this was the catalyst for paradigm shift in workplace culture and the future handling of sexual harassment.
However, we know that Weinstein, and many, many like him, have been operating for years, even decades. Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, was ousted in 2016 after 23 women came forward detailing horrendous harassment and assaults perpetrated by the executive. Bill Cosby was drugging and assaulting women for years. Many in the industry knew what was happening. But as a beloved TV dad, Cosby was able to abuse his power and scores of women for decades.
In The Assistant, we see Jane attempt to come to terms with the world around her. As a young adult, it is easy to acknowledge bad things happening in the world, but struggle when bad things happen in your orbit. What is admirable about Jane is her quickness to speak up. There are few films that feel their young female characters are empowered enough in the early 20s to understand what is right and wrong. Jane knows where her moral convictions lie.
However, it was when Jane is confronted with complacency and is gaslit by HR, that she begins to struggle with her gut feelings and the potential risk to her future opportunities. She struggles with adhering to her morals and the dire consequences for the choice she has to make.
DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF TOXICITY
In this era of #MeToo and #TimesUp, most of the toxicity that has been discussed is the harassment and sexual assaults experienced by many in the film industry. Those areas are truly so important to discuss. Unfortunately, that is not the only aspect of toxicity people encounter.
For instance, Jane is constantly belittled and ridiculed by those around her, while also getting a conflicting message from time to time that she is doing stellar work. She is expected to just do everything with no reward or recognition. She only has the possibility of a metaphorically cracked open door for further opportunity in her chosen field.
The Assistant happened to highlight this before one of the more recent scandals coming out of Hollywood: Ellen Degeneres. For those blissfully unaware, Ellen Degeneres has faced a lot of scrutiny for a toxic workplace on her show “Ellen.” There are a number of staff members (most are former staff members) who have publicly come forward, detailing their experiences with racial harassment, fear-tactics, and abuse of power from the show’s producers and Degeneres herself. Three of the show’s producers have been fired for sexual misconduct.
We see snippets of that in Green’s film, with insinuations of ruin for people stepping outside of their role – even if those people are expected to do way more than their job descriptions. In Degeneres’ case, she is rightfully facing backlash. Her employees just miraculously received five days of paid time off, which they never had before?!?
FROM COMPLACENCY TO ACTION
The Assistant does not have a grand ending. Jane does not set her workplace on fire, nor does she become a creepy exec assassin (I cannot be the only one hoping for one of those two things occurring). Instead, she eats dinner and tries to forget about her day. It is easy to see this as Jane’s submission to the way things are. And maybe for that day, and many days after, Jane does submit to the workplace culture she exists in.
However, I think what Green gave us a character that mirrors most people. Most people are bystanders to events every day. There may be times that due to the comfort in the various privileges we hold we are allowed to be complacent. But what is important is that we do not remain complacent. When there is a pervasive toxicity, a simple solution is never available.
I certainly do not have all of the answers. I have very few answers. But, there is one thing that we have to do. When brave people come forward and fight against a culture of harassment and assault, fight against abuses of power, we need to support them. And once those battles are won, we cannot allow for any of the work that led to change to be undone. Right now, we may be staring at the problem from a diner across the street, but we cannot stay seated and expect change to occur.
The Assistant is available stream on iTunes.
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