Grade: B
I was a few minutes into The Assistant when I surmised that it would either be one of the best movies of the year, or one of the worst. It ends up being neither. We get on the train, and never leave the station. The conceit is enormously alluring, but it ultimately fizzles out and never really launches or goes anywhere. The filmmaking style can be compared to Roma or The Florida Project. Virtually no score at all. A real-time, almost documentary feel. Periods of little to no dialogue, where characters do mundane everyday activities that are usually not included in “normal” films – like walking around, just sitting there, or filing things in the office.
The Assistant is a day in the life of an administrative assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul of what I guess is some sort of movie company. Miramax and Harvey Weinstein come to mind for various reasons. Our protagonist is listed as Jane in the credits, but I don’t remember her name ever being said by anyone. She is played with admirable forthrightness by 26-year-old actress Julia Garner. Jane is pretty low on the totem pole in this predominantly male office building. She is the first one in, the last one out, doesn’t see her friends much anymore, and missed her father’s birthday the other night. But she is sincere, honest, dedicated, and represents the lesser-acknowledged unsung heroes of the office. The movie nails it when it comes to the feeling of working a M-F 9-5 business casual gig. The florescent lights. The cubicles. The ringing of the phones. The background voices you half-hear. The muffled-voice conversations behind closed doors of those lucky enough to have an office. The microwave and fridge in the break room. The sound of the copy machine. You can almost smell the coffee.
The boss is never named in the movie, either, but only referred to as a pronoun. “Is he in yet?” “I’ll call him back.” “He will see you now.” etc. The closest the movie ever gets to igniting is when Jane goes next door to talk to HR about some inappropriate behavior she thinks might be happening, that she is uncomfortable with. Regarding “him.” The scene doesn’t work as well as it could, because she isn’t direct and specific enough – so it comes off as fairly unsatisfying.
The Assistant is all possibilities and no follow through. It is a very focused snapshot that never amounts to much – and yet, it’s too interesting to be boring. I want to see it again to find out if a buried structure will unfold itself to me, but I somehow have a feeling that what you see here is all you get. Something like The Florida Project definitely went places. I love where this could have gone, but something is consistently missing. I want to see more movies like this. I hope there is another, perhaps like The Assistant, that takes this pleasant enough vanilla yogurt and adds the exact flavor it needs. It will happen, and it’s a movie I look forward to seeing.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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