The Assistant (2020) on Netflix
Jane, a junior assistant at a New York film production company, arrives before dawn for menial tasks. She endures verbal abuse from her unseen boss and becomes aware of harassment around her.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.3/1029,932 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jane has been a junior assistant at a New York film production company for five weeks. She arrives before dawn and does menial office work, while long hours and demanding tasks leave her stressed. A phone call with her mother reminds her that she forgot her father's birthday. Her boss reprimands her harshly over the phone whenever he thinks she has made a mistake, and her two male coworkers look on in silence. As the day goes on, she sees signs of sexual harassment and becomes increasingly uneasy about the workplace.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Assistant (2020)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Kitty Green got the idea for The Assistant while promoting her documentary Casting JonBenét at Sundance in 2017, where press and festival organizers assumed her male colleagues had come up with her ideas. The experience nearly made her quit filmmaking.
- Getting the film made was difficult because it was critical of the film industry. Several female executives who loved it promised to recommend it to colleagues, but Green received emails back saying those colleagues refused to even read it.
- For research, Green interviewed former assistants at film studios, agencies and production companies who had worked under toxic, predatory bosses; some had worked at the Weinstein Company.
- The boss is a looming presence in The Assistant but is never actually seen. Green said she was more interested in the machinery of the workplace and in what was going on on the other side of the door.
- Green used no musical score in the film, saying the cultural silence around sexual harassment in the office was something she was exploring, and that the quiet was really important to her.
