Image courtesy Bleecker Street - Ty Johnson
The work week begins early for Jane (Julia Garner) as the car service ferries her from Astoria into the glittering jewel box of pre-dawn Manhattan. First to arrive at the office, she ascends in the elevator, arms wrapped around bulky folders. One by one, Jane switches on the banks of overhead lights, reaches from the kitchenette shelf for her Big Hug Mug and starts the coffeemaker. She prints out reports of weekend grosses by rank and market—early clue that this is the movie industry—and sets them neatly on the CEO’s desk. Donning latex gloves, she cleans his office, wiping stains from the couch and finding an earring—clues. Daylight finally comes.
The Assistant is a compellingly lowkey, ripped-from-headlines drama set amidst casually assumed male workplace privilege coupled with the particular power wielded by predatory men who can open professional doors or lock them tight. Jane works alongside a couple of more-or-less benign frat boys who treat her like a little sister; they set her up for embarrassment and then coach her on how to get out of trouble. Hovering over this office culture is the CEO, unseen but occasionally heard snarling on the phone.
The tone grows more tense with the arrival of a new assistant, a young woman whom the CEO just met in Sun Valley, flew out to New York and ensconced in a nice hotel. She appears hapless at her office tasks. Summoning what seems like foolish courage, Jane goes to the HR director and expresses her concerns. The director is unsympathetic and picks apart her suspicions. “You want to be a producer? We could use more women producers,” he says, adding, “Why are you here trying to throw it all away?”
Garner, best known from the Netflix crime drama “Ozark,” gives a marvelously restrained performance as Jane stifles her emotions, her anxiety and her concerns and tries to tread the uncertain waters. Australian filmmaker Kitty Green directs a meticulously detailed depiction of the multi-tasking overload of contemporary office life—the rhythm is just so, and Jane’s tedium never becomes tedious. Step by step and alongside her, the viewer becomes aware of Jane’s precarious situation. Without a hint of melodrama, Green and Garner dramatize a situation that was never confined to the upper echelons of Hollywood.
