She Said (2022)........functions well as a skillful, solidly conceived addition to the genre of 'procedural journalism'. (the most famous and celebrated in that category being Alan Pakula's "All The President's Men".)
Filmmakers face an uphill battle in making a procedural journalism movie palatable, coherent and compelling for an audience. By the very nature of investigative work, reporters must doggedly pursue clues, leads, scraps of vital information, anything that will lead to the truth of their story.
And naturally this task involves tracking down individuals willing to go 'on the record' and confirm enough hard facts to make the story immediate and vital enough to put before the public. The first hurdle - finding these people. The second hurdle - finding the ones willing to spill their guts.. It's a tedious slog for even the most tenacious of journalists......not a job that lends itself to the swift brevity of cinema storytelling.
I'm happy to report that screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz and director Maria Schrader do indeed accomplish the near impossible......crafting a riveting drama from New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's uncovering of producer Harvey Weinstein's long, long history of sexual abuse and rape.
Zoe Kazan as Kantor and Carey Mulligan as Twohey, perfectly embody what raging misogynists (and Mitch McConnel) most dread......women who persist. The film succeeds in creating an atmosphere of suspenseful immediacy as the two women go on their relentless quest to shine the light of day on Weinstein's crimes.
It wasn't easy by any means. Weinstein wielded overwhelming power to make or break careers and frequently used it with vengeful cruelty if the women he accosted dared to speak out. For years, he terrorized the film community like a bloated Jabba The Hut, cornering his female employees and actresses to give him 'massages' as a warm-up for attempted rape.
As well done as the film is, I should point out it provides the NY Times with something a whitewash. A previous Times investigation into Weinstein was killed by one its editors, fearing a major defamation suit. This led to Kantor and Twohey's encounters with people who'd given up cooperating with them, since their previous truth-telling revelations went unpublished.
The film's overall impact makes it unfold like a quiet, but methodical thriller......in which the real life courage of a few women such as Rose McGowen and Ashley Judd, who appears in the film as herself) served to bring down a monster on the loose. .
Even Weinstein's anointed Mirimax Princess, Gwyneth Paltrow contributes her phone call voice.....Paltrow, who managed to escape Jabba's attacks, still remained his obsession. The film's one singularly dark comedy moment arrives when Weinstein, on an enraged speakerphone call with Kantor, Twohey and the Times editors, demands to know if their story includes Paltrow......
While I appreciate that "She Said" sticks to its own particular agenda of procedural journalism, there's more than enough here for another kind of thriller. Maybe some ambitious filmmakers will take shot Weinstein's tyrannical reign over Hollywood, with A-Listers groveling and bowing to him, much in the same way the GOP crawls on its hands and knees before Donald Trump.]\
(How else could such a repulsive tub of shit like Harvey Weinstein get away with so much for so long?)
At least there's what constitutes a happy ending to this monumentally ugly story......Weinstein rotting in jail where he belongs, with more rape trials to come. To put it simply, the only massage he'll enjoy now will come from his cellmates....heh, heh, heh.,....
In this day and age, "She Said" is well worth anyone's time. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)
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