Post by Dracula on Nov 26, 2022 8:09:55 GMT -5
She Said(11/17/2022)
The investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s conduct at Miramax, The Weinstein Company, and in his personal life is probably one of the most public downfalls I can remember. There was article after article outlining his conduct both as it was first being revealed, as his business fell apart, and as he proceeded to finally face prosecution and incarceration for his conduct. It was certainly an important chapter that has influenced a lot of recent events, but with all there’s been said about this turn of events one wonders what more can be learned from a feature film about the initial investigation into this story and the answer is… not a whole lot. The film follows New York Times journalists Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) as they track down leads on this scandal and try to get people on the record about what Weinstein has been doing all these years. This investigative journalism into sexual abuse premise will of course instantly remind many audiences of the Academy Award winning film Spotlight and the film also serves as something of an unofficial spiritual sequel to the 2019 film Bombshell, which looked at the investigation into sexual harassment at Fox News. So while the journalism and investigative elements in the film seem authentic and are interesting at times, they don’t really feel particularly fresh and interesting cinematically and the story they’re investigating is also being to be very familiar to anyone who wasn’t living under a rock in 2017 so while there’s stuff here to interest you there isn’t necessarily a lot to excite you.
This is not to say the film isn’t well made, because it definitely is. Mulligan and Kazan are both quite strong in their respective roles and do a pretty good job of making these journalists believable as everyday people and there are some strong supporting performances as well like Andre Braugher as New York Times editor Dean Baquet. What you will not see in the film are people pretending to be the various movie stars who Weinstein abused; some of them show up as voices on the other end of phones and Ashley Judd shows up in the film portraying herself, but the film avoids having people do imitative performances. The same goes for Weinstein himself, very briefly shows up in the movie portrayed by a body double from behind but otherwise only shows up as a voice. Another figure who’s a no show in all of this is Ronan Farrow, who’s role in Weinstein’s downfall is acknowledged in one line and is otherwise ignored. Maybe this is because the film wanted to focus primarily on the efforts of these two female journalists who have been overshadowed by Farrow, or maybe it’s just a matter of Farrow having sold the rights to his side of the story elsewhere, but it does feel like a missing piece.
These are all probably the most dignified choices they could have made but there is a certain point where it feels like they’re leaving a lot on the table given that the whole point of this is supposed to be to dramatize this story we all already know about. Now, having said all of that, I do worry that I may be coming off as far more negative towards this movie than I am. As I said before, it’s a well-made and crafted movie, one that mostly accomplishes what it sets out to do. The thing is, this is approaching the end of the year and standards are pretty high right now and just being “good” is a little shy of what really needs to be done to stand out in the crowd. This year we’ve already gotten Tár and shortly we’ll be seeing the release of Women Talking. Both of those movies are very much about #MeToo, but they’re both able to look at this phenomenon in less direct and more creative ways and those seem like much bigger accomplishments. But that’s not to say this movie doesn’t have value; I was certainly engaged with it the whole time while watching it and I suspect its value may increase over time as the details of this investigation become a bit more hazy in people’s memories and this all starts to seem a bit more fresh in retrospect.
*** out of Five
The investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s conduct at Miramax, The Weinstein Company, and in his personal life is probably one of the most public downfalls I can remember. There was article after article outlining his conduct both as it was first being revealed, as his business fell apart, and as he proceeded to finally face prosecution and incarceration for his conduct. It was certainly an important chapter that has influenced a lot of recent events, but with all there’s been said about this turn of events one wonders what more can be learned from a feature film about the initial investigation into this story and the answer is… not a whole lot. The film follows New York Times journalists Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) as they track down leads on this scandal and try to get people on the record about what Weinstein has been doing all these years. This investigative journalism into sexual abuse premise will of course instantly remind many audiences of the Academy Award winning film Spotlight and the film also serves as something of an unofficial spiritual sequel to the 2019 film Bombshell, which looked at the investigation into sexual harassment at Fox News. So while the journalism and investigative elements in the film seem authentic and are interesting at times, they don’t really feel particularly fresh and interesting cinematically and the story they’re investigating is also being to be very familiar to anyone who wasn’t living under a rock in 2017 so while there’s stuff here to interest you there isn’t necessarily a lot to excite you.
This is not to say the film isn’t well made, because it definitely is. Mulligan and Kazan are both quite strong in their respective roles and do a pretty good job of making these journalists believable as everyday people and there are some strong supporting performances as well like Andre Braugher as New York Times editor Dean Baquet. What you will not see in the film are people pretending to be the various movie stars who Weinstein abused; some of them show up as voices on the other end of phones and Ashley Judd shows up in the film portraying herself, but the film avoids having people do imitative performances. The same goes for Weinstein himself, very briefly shows up in the movie portrayed by a body double from behind but otherwise only shows up as a voice. Another figure who’s a no show in all of this is Ronan Farrow, who’s role in Weinstein’s downfall is acknowledged in one line and is otherwise ignored. Maybe this is because the film wanted to focus primarily on the efforts of these two female journalists who have been overshadowed by Farrow, or maybe it’s just a matter of Farrow having sold the rights to his side of the story elsewhere, but it does feel like a missing piece.
These are all probably the most dignified choices they could have made but there is a certain point where it feels like they’re leaving a lot on the table given that the whole point of this is supposed to be to dramatize this story we all already know about. Now, having said all of that, I do worry that I may be coming off as far more negative towards this movie than I am. As I said before, it’s a well-made and crafted movie, one that mostly accomplishes what it sets out to do. The thing is, this is approaching the end of the year and standards are pretty high right now and just being “good” is a little shy of what really needs to be done to stand out in the crowd. This year we’ve already gotten Tár and shortly we’ll be seeing the release of Women Talking. Both of those movies are very much about #MeToo, but they’re both able to look at this phenomenon in less direct and more creative ways and those seem like much bigger accomplishments. But that’s not to say this movie doesn’t have value; I was certainly engaged with it the whole time while watching it and I suspect its value may increase over time as the details of this investigation become a bit more hazy in people’s memories and this all starts to seem a bit more fresh in retrospect.
*** out of Five
