The Assistant

Directed by Kitty Green, The Assistant follows Julia Garner’s Jane as she works her job at a small production company and becomes increasingly concerned about her unseen boss’ predatory behavior. First-time filmmaker Green has infused The Assistant with a low-key and almost clinical feel that doesn’t exactly draw the viewer in, with the somewhat arms-length atmosphere compounded by an exceedingly deliberate pace and a rather one-note, far-from-fleshed-out protagonist. (It doesn’t help, either, that Green makes the head-scratching decision to obscure the other end of Jane’s many, many phone calls.) The ongoing emphasis on Jane’s everyday tasks certainly does little to alleviate the less-than-captivating vibe, and there’s little doubt that The Assistant doesn’t begin to improve until Jane begins to take action against her sketchy boss – with the film undoubtedly benefiting from a very strong sequence in which the character attempts to share her concerns with an exceedingly apathetic human resources employee (Matthew Macfadyen’s Wilcock). It’s an all-too-brief respite from what’s otherwise (and predominantly) a distressingly uninvolving piece of work, which is a shame, certainly, given the exceedingly relevant nature of The Assistant’s subject matter.

** out of ****