She Said – Film Review

The New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor publish a report that exposes sexual abuse allegations against powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The shocking story also serves as a launching pad for the #MeToo movement, shattering decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault and harassment.

Maria Schrader‘s She Said is undoubtedly one of the most uncomfortable and disturbing films in years, but it’s also one that absolutely needed to be told, and Schrader more than rose to the occasion to tell the disgusting story of film producer Harvey Weinstein and his history of abuse and sexual misconduct against women.

This is one of those movies that will either hook you right from the beginning and leave you curious to see how it all plays out, or you’ll find yourself immensely bored and hoping it will end soon. Personally, I was invested from the moment the film started. It never once pulls any punches from showing just how sick and twisted Weinstein is and it wastes no time in going into detail about his actions.

Just when you think things can’t get more unsettling, they do. Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz manages to tell this shocking true story in a way that will make your blood boil. It will make you wish that Weinstein was caught sooner and that justice was served a long, long time ago.

In terms of style, this film is incredibly similar to Jay Roach‘s Bombshell – a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed, but this is heaps and bounds better. It’s also quite similar to Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight, so if you’re a fan of either one of those movies, you’ll probably end up liking this one as well.

The incredibly underrated Zoe Kazan takes center stage here, portraying journalist Jodi Kantor in one of the year’s most thrilling and nuanced performances. Kazan has always been one to take interesting, complex roles. You’ll never see her in a film in which she portrays a generic character. As Kantor, Kazan commands the screen.

Carey Mulligan is also a knockout here as journalist Megan Twohey, who will stop at nothing to make sure that Weinstein is brought to justice. But in order to do that, both her and Kantor must work together to find a way to convince Weinstein’s victims to speak out against him.

As mentioned earlier, this is not an easy watch whatsoever. It does run for way too long at over two hours in total, and every single minute of that is pure unease, but that’s exactly what this movie needed to be. It’s a shame that this didn’t perform well at the box office because this is a film that needed to be made.

She Said is an incredibly unsettling and highly disturbing look at the damage done by film producer Harvey Weinstein, excellently directed by Maria Schrader with a sharp script from Rebecca Lenkiewicz.