She Said

It's a story of the brave and the courageous, of abuse and injury that's so outrageous, a vile predator is caged, you'll feel angered and enraged, as he's abhorrent, evil, heinous, and quite viscous. Jodi and Meghan lift the lid on these events, revealing a hornets nest of disturbing contents, a factual actual can of worms, makes you agitate and squirm, you'll be shouting at the screen, as your spleen vents.

A far from uncommon story of abuse when taken individually but, as they're gradually racked up against one individual the sense of what power and money can achieve, and especially conceal, leaves you questioning what really goes on behind closed doors, and whether those affected will ever come to terms with their past.

Great performances from Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan who's tenacity and passion for what they do shines through.

My wife and I watched this new movie streaming on NBC's Peacock. While it is a bit over two hours it is so gripping that it never seemed long. It comes across almost as a documentary but is a dramatization using actors mostly.

It actually starts in 2015 when Trump was campaigning for President and the revelations that he had a history of sexual mistreatment of women but was elected anyway. In effect pointing out the double standard and the old boys' attitudes of "well it was just locker-room talk."

After that brief introduction to the subject the rest of this movie shows how two reporters with the NY Times pursued leads regarding Harvey Weinstein of Miramax and was finally able to get a number of women to come forward with their accounts, ultimately leading to his convictions and imprisonment.

I am shocked this film wasn't nominated for any Academy awards. This was such a brilliantly well made movie. First of all the acting is fantastic. Both Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan were both realistic in there acting and it worked perfectly. The writing and directing was done very well. The entire film seemed to be handled with such care and it highly shows. The film is disturbing and well acted and talks about some very important topics that are needed to be talked about. Overall, this was just a great film. I don't think there is anything wrong with this film and it's a highly recommended film in my opinion.

Sometimes a movie is a record of events, a record of the truth, which lifts its importance higher than mere entertainment. There have been some notable films about real events, history changing events, and beyond the independently high value of each film, none have come close to All the President's Men (1976).

There comes a moment in every film about journalism, that the size of the shark is revealed. In All the President's Men it is towards the end: "everyone is involved (...) your lives are in danger". In Spotlight (2015) it's when they realize the number of abusive priests, in Boston alone, is not five or six but over ninety. In She Said (2022) the size of the shark is revealed at the historical notes just before the end credits.

She Said, may not be about a crook of a US President or the systemic cover-up of abuse by the Catholic church, but it is about something that reaches far and wide in every corner of life and of the workplace: the abuse of women and the abusers' standard defense that the victims are making it up, and then paying them off for their silence.

Although the pace of the movie is slow and low key, like any investigative journalism is in real life, I would have wanted a few points of punctuation where we instantly realize we are going to need a bigger boat. Yes, such real-life points have been accurately transferred to the screen in She Said, but you have to look for them, they don't jump out at you, and if you are already sleeping you might miss them. This admittedly very well-made movie could do with a little more catering to audiences that need to be pinched awake once in a reel or so.

For years now I have stopped re-watching Weinstein's excellent movies because they were made by a despicable creature who hurt human beings while making these excellent movies. No Weinstein re-runs for me. And kudos to the New York Times investigative reporters and to the New York Times for going after a world-renowned film producer and, in the beginning of the movie, going after a presidential candidate. The producer is now serving 23 years and the candidate got elected. I wonder how much of this movie was also about our society itself, that harbors such people and promotes them. And, speaking of society depicted on film, I wonder how many negative "helpful's" I'll get as punishment for my previous phrase.

When the Weinstein story first broke out, I was absolutely seething for days. And watching this movie brought all those feelings back again.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for these women to deal with a monster like that, let alone be preyed upon and assaulted by him.

The film is a feminist version of All The President's Men mixed with Spotlight, in which a group of journalists work tirelessly and passionately to research and write a story that will ultimately change the world.

Although there is no character development, there are good performances all around, especially from Carey Mulligan and Jennifer Ehle.

To think that this was going on for literally decades and up until recently is just insane.

Brilliant, powerful film.