My Review -
She Said. My Rating 10/10
This is a very important movie that will probably suffer at the box office as evidenced by poor attendance early in it's initial theatrical release.
It's based on the 2019 book of the same name by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey two persistent and brave journalists who took on the ugly spectre of the once most powerful man in Hollywood Harvey Weinstein.
It's probably no coincidence that Carey Mulligan who was also superb as Maud Watts another pioneer for women's rights in the 2015 movie Suffragette was cast as Megan Twohey who along with Zoe Kazan who's equally impressive as Jodi Kantor ,they both have a place in journalistic history .
I think these two impressive investigative journalists will be seen to be as important in the history of women's rights as the 1912 suffragettes in London who also battled powerful men who thought women should be silenced and remain subservient in a male dominated system.
She Said is a much much bigger story than the pursuit and eventual conviction of Harvey Weinstein who is currently serving 23 years in prison and interestingly at the time of this movie's release is facing more charges of sexual assault in L. A. In one of the many powerful scenes in the film Megan Twohey says to her colleague Jodi Kantor words to the effect that this is much more than nailing Weinstein .
It's not just him we should be after. They have an entire machine What we're dealing with here is a system that condones sexual abuse to women by men in powerful positions.
If it could happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?
That's the reason I think this movie is one of the most important films of the year .
Beautifully directed by Maria Schrader with a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz that's intense if perhaps a little slow in gaining momentum but when it does it soars .
There's so many great performances in She Said , special mention must be made about Patricia Clarkson as Rebecca Corbett the executive editor who encourages and supports the two journalists and Jennifer Ehle as Laura Madden a woman facing a life threatening health crisis .
Laura's story which begins the movie when she is a young woman on a film set in Ireland in 1995 . It concerns the sexual abuse perpetrated by Weinstein that she has felt shamed for and hidden from her family till this investigation .
There are to many other great performances to mention including Ashley Judd who played such an important role in the exposure of Weinstein's crimes she of course plays herself .
I think this is why this film has an authenticity about it including the fact that the movie was shot in the real New York Times building and is the first movie ever to use the real offices.
It was interesting and a little surprising to see Brad Pitt's name on the credits as an Executive Producer of this movie . When he was dating Gwyneth Paltrow decades before his marriage to Angelina Jolie he was aware of the sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein .
He also purchased the rights to the book on which this movie is based on.
Gwyneth Paltrow who is often mentioned but not seen in the movie told him about her encounters with Weinstein which occurred at the very beginning of her career according to her interview on the Howard Stern Show on May 23, 2018.
In 2009, Pitt starred in Inglourious Basterds (2009), which was produced by Weinstein and distributed by The Weinstein Company, and a few years later he approached Weinstein and asked him to produce the movie Killing Them Softly (2012) . Angelina Jolie who was also a victim of Weinstein's abuse said in an interview for The Guardian on September 4, 2021, that she fought with Pitt over that, but he still wanted Weinstein to produce the movie anyway, and Jolie said that it hurt her that Pitt was happy to work with Weinstein despite knowing he had assaulted her.
I really hope my review prompts more people to see She Said in a cinema preferably as it is obvious from the early Trump reference regarding his sexual misconduct allegations with audio evidence to back it up that these powerful men still have a powerful protection machine behind them .
Weinstein's great protector amazingly was a woman Lisa Bloom an attorney who tried to discredit the journalists and the women who came forward .
One of the most notable trends to emerge from the 2016 presidential election was the large number of white women who helped solidify Donald Trump's victory.
Hopefully this trend has turned around the Trump phone call in the early scenes of She Said sets the plot for a disturbing and very educational movie experience.
This is a very important movie that will probably suffer at the box office as evidenced by poor attendance early in it's initial theatrical release.
It's based on the 2019 book of the same name by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey two persistent and brave journalists who took on the ugly spectre of the once most powerful man in Hollywood Harvey Weinstein.
It's probably no coincidence that Carey Mulligan who was also superb as Maud Watts another pioneer for women's rights in the 2015 movie Suffragette was cast as Megan Twohey who along with Zoe Kazan who's equally impressive as Jodi Kantor ,they both have a place in journalistic history .
I think these two impressive investigative journalists will be seen to be as important in the history of women's rights as the 1912 suffragettes in London who also battled powerful men who thought women should be silenced and remain subservient in a male dominated system.
She Said is a much much bigger story than the pursuit and eventual conviction of Harvey Weinstein who is currently serving 23 years in prison and interestingly at the time of this movie's release is facing more charges of sexual assault in L. A. In one of the many powerful scenes in the film Megan Twohey says to her colleague Jodi Kantor words to the effect that this is much more than nailing Weinstein .
It's not just him we should be after. They have an entire machine What we're dealing with here is a system that condones sexual abuse to women by men in powerful positions.
If it could happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?
That's the reason I think this movie is one of the most important films of the year .
Beautifully directed by Maria Schrader with a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz that's intense if perhaps a little slow in gaining momentum but when it does it soars .
There's so many great performances in She Said , special mention must be made about Patricia Clarkson as Rebecca Corbett the executive editor who encourages and supports the two journalists and Jennifer Ehle as Laura Madden a woman facing a life threatening health crisis .
Laura's story which begins the movie when she is a young woman on a film set in Ireland in 1995 . It concerns the sexual abuse perpetrated by Weinstein that she has felt shamed for and hidden from her family till this investigation .
There are to many other great performances to mention including Ashley Judd who played such an important role in the exposure of Weinstein's crimes she of course plays herself .
I think this is why this film has an authenticity about it including the fact that the movie was shot in the real New York Times building and is the first movie ever to use the real offices.
It was interesting and a little surprising to see Brad Pitt's name on the credits as an Executive Producer of this movie . When he was dating Gwyneth Paltrow decades before his marriage to Angelina Jolie he was aware of the sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein .
He also purchased the rights to the book on which this movie is based on.
Gwyneth Paltrow who is often mentioned but not seen in the movie told him about her encounters with Weinstein which occurred at the very beginning of her career according to her interview on the Howard Stern Show on May 23, 2018.
In 2009, Pitt starred in Inglourious Basterds (2009), which was produced by Weinstein and distributed by The Weinstein Company, and a few years later he approached Weinstein and asked him to produce the movie Killing Them Softly (2012) . Angelina Jolie who was also a victim of Weinstein's abuse said in an interview for The Guardian on September 4, 2021, that she fought with Pitt over that, but he still wanted Weinstein to produce the movie anyway, and Jolie said that it hurt her that Pitt was happy to work with Weinstein despite knowing he had assaulted her.
I really hope my review prompts more people to see She Said in a cinema preferably as it is obvious from the early Trump reference regarding his sexual misconduct allegations with audio evidence to back it up that these powerful men still have a powerful protection machine behind them .
Weinstein's great protector amazingly was a woman Lisa Bloom an attorney who tried to discredit the journalists and the women who came forward .
One of the most notable trends to emerge from the 2016 presidential election was the large number of white women who helped solidify Donald Trump's victory.
Hopefully this trend has turned around the Trump phone call in the early scenes of She Said sets the plot for a disturbing and very educational movie experience.