Mubi Monday: The Assistant (2019)

A film very much stemming from, and in dialogue with, the #metoo movement of recent years, The Assistant is also a straightforward look at workplace toxicity and the attitudes that can lock individuals into miserable jobs for far too long.

Julia Garner is the assistant of the title, busy with telephone calls and appointments that all have to be figured out around the whims and moods of her boss. There are other people here, including a character played by Matthew Macfadyen, but it's Garner's character, Jane, who holds, and deserves, our attention as we're shown one typically terrible day in her job.

Written and directed by Kitty Green, who has a small, but very interesting, filmography I think is worth exploring, The Assistant feels oppressive and uncomfortably believable throughout the entire 87-minute runtime. Viewers get to see numerous assholes being placated and protected, all because of their high executive position, and because they are part of an entertainment industry that continues to have these self-contained cesspools where scumbags can have fun and thrive, as long as they keep making the right amounts of money for everyone else.

Garner is never excellent, never less than riveting in the way she uses her body language to show her constant struggle and the growing weight on her shoulders. Others who move around her also do well, and always do enough to add context and flavour to the ebb and flow of the workplace, but it's only Macfadyen who gets a chance to meet Garner at her level. His scene underlines the difficulties facing our lead, and he delivers some horrible dialogue with a calm tone and generally pleasant manner that makes it feel all the more sickening.

Some people who have experienced anything like this may be able to watch The Assistant and feel relief that they have moved on, but others may actually find the behaviour shown here quite triggering. Be warned. There may also be some people who are working, or have worked, in a place that they think is decent enough until they start to recognise some of the red flags shown here. Again . . . be warned.

Very effective stuff, and Green knows just how to pace the film and make great use of what can be inferred by viewers, this is a surprisingly gripping drama that some could easily argue stands on the very edge of horror movie territory. It's helped by that impeccable turn from Garner (who I am quickly becoming quite a fan of, having seen her in two features this week that have both benefited from giving her the lead role), as well as the fact that it reminds us all that change is still rippling through a number of industries thanks to those who started the ball rolling a few years ago.

8/10

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