Movie Review: ‘The Assistant’ Evokes Harvey Weinstein Scandal

At last, there’s a movie about Harvey Weinstein. True, nobody important is involved, none of the major studios are distributing it, the budget is approximately $1.78, and major issues go unaddressed. Baby steps! At the rate the movie industry is racing slowly to cover sexual depredations of famous Democrats, we might get a frankly honest movie about John F. Kennedy in, say, 65 years.

The Weinstein movie, which is debuting at the Sundance Film Festival and hits theaters on January 31, is called The Assistant, yet for a movie about sexual misconduct, it looks an awful lot like a movie about making coffee, consulting vacuum-cleaner instruction manuals, and unjamming office copiers. The titular figure, played by Julia Garner, is an office newbie who works for an executive whose face we never see, and whose name is never given, but who unmistakably evokes Weinstein, right down to the Tribeca headquarters, the foreign wife, and the locations of his houses (Connecticut, Greenwich Village, Amagansett).

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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At last, there’s a movie about Harvey Weinstein. True, nobody important is involved, none of the major studios are distributing it, the budget is approximately $1.78, and major issues go unaddressed. Baby steps! At the rate the movie industry is racing slowly to cover sexual depredations of famous Democrats, we might get a frankly honest movie about John F. Kennedy in, say, 65 years.

The Weinstein movie, which is debuting at the Sundance Film Festival and hits theaters on January 31, is called The Assistant, yet for a movie about sexual misconduct, it looks an awful lot like a movie about making coffee, consulting vacuum-cleaner instruction manuals, and unjamming office copiers. The titular figure, played by Julia Garner, is an office newbie who works for an executive whose face we never see, and whose name is never given, but who unmistakably evokes Weinstein, right down to the Tribeca headquarters, the foreign wife, and the locations of his houses (Connecticut, Greenwich Village, Amagansett).