MOVIE!MANIACS: THE ASSISTANT

Another day at the office: Jane, the new assistant to a powerful media mogul, was the first to arrive and will be the last to leave at the end of the film. She completes her tasks, endures the constant hostility of her colleagues and devotes herself to the growing pile of work with care and precision: printing out schedules, organizing trips, ordering lunch, cleaning up her boss's office. Without ever appearing on screen, the boss is omnipresent, with Jane as well as with the viewers*. We hear him through the phone as he rebukes Jane, and we see a whole series of attractive women who come to the company at his direction. As Jane's distrust and discomfort take over, it is revealed that she is part of an abusive system.
With visual austerity and narrative calm, Kitty Green's compelling feature debut focuses on the oppressive processes at work. She depicts the abuse that takes place behind closed doors from the perspective of those who willingly or unwillingly enable it. In the end, we may not have seen much, but understood all the more.

by Kitty Green
with Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Jon Orsini, Noah Robbins, Alexander Chaplin, Jay O. Sanders, Juliana Canfield, Dagmara Dominczyk