She Said (2022)

 One of my favorite films of 2019 was 'Bombshell', which told the story of the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal at Fox News. Conservative media is an easy target for Hollywood, and in my review at the time I mentioned how the far closer to home story of Harvey Weinstein's crimes, needed to be told in a major motion picture as well. Now they have been.

'She Said' chronicles the 2017 investigation by New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) into the sex crimes of the A-List producer, which finally ended Weinstein's career in the movies, lead to his prosecution and conviction (with still more cases pending) and helped inaugurate the MeToo Movement. It is an investigative journalism picture in the tradition of 'All the President's Men' and 'The Post', and easily the best such film in the genra since 'Spotlight'.

Weinstein's assults and harasments against famous Hollywood actresses most captured the public imagination in the aftermath of the New York Times story. This of course is a major part of the movie, with actress and Weinstein victim Ashley Judd appearing as herself in the film, another Rose McGowan is played by a voice actress in telephone conversations. But it is the stories of Weinstein's lesser known victims that are here more resonate. The production assistants, and various office personal who were victimized and often forced into restrictive NDA's, essentially blacklisted in the industry, careers destroyed.

Samantha Morton plays Zelda Perkins, a young employee at Miramax Studios London office in the 90's, her career was ended for standing up for one of Weinstein's victims. She has only one long scene in the movie, and it is Oscar worthy. Jennifer Ehle and another apparently uncredited actress play Laura Madden in the 2010's and 1990's respectively. Her story opens the film, the young woman coming across a movie shoot in her native Ireland, getting a small job behind the sceens, then shown running in tears through the streets after Harvey attacked her.

The film chronicles our two reporters as they spend often fustrating months investigating the story, looking for ways to get and confirm sensitive information, trying to persuade victims to come forward, and even current Weinstein employes to take personal and professional risks to get the truth out. It's all well done and very effective in the genra tradition. What 'She Said' adds is an unusual emphasis on the personal lives of the reporters themselves, both working mothers of daughters, this is personal to them, but they are also consummate profressionals with an excellent sense of ethics. Our leads performances as with most everyone in the film, including Patricia Clarkson and Andra Brougher as their NYT bosses, are excellent.

'She Said' is a deservedly strong contender for multiple Oscars, which puts the film in a weird place. Will Academy voters chose to honor a film depicting evils many of them turned a blind eye to, when it was one of Hollywood's most open secrets, what the seemingly beloved Harvey did to women. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario for many in the industry, and for many a deserved damning. But as a film 'She Said' is a first rate drama, and as an expose of what is still a systemic problem in Hollywood and beyound, its an important one. ****