New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.
Released: 2022-11-17
Runtime: 129 minutes
Genre: Drama
Stars: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, Angela Yeoh, Tom Pelphrey, Adam Shapiro, Maren Heary, Sean Cullen, Anastasia Barzee, Keilly McQuail, Hilary Greer, Tina WongLu, Nancy Ellen Shore, Wesley Holloway, Stephen Dexter, Ruby Thomas, Emma Clare O'Connor, Brad Neilley, Stephanie Heitman, Jason Hewitt, Sujata Eyrick, Justine Colan, Steven Bitterman, Liam Edwards, Norah Feliciano, Kareemeh Odeh, Anita Sabherwal, Kelly Rian Sanson, Lauren Yaffe, George Walsh, Dalya Knapp, Maren Lord, Elle Graham
Director: Maria Schrader
Comments
jamespmadison-52401 - 1 May 2024 Not as dramatic as it should be This is a story that needed to be told, and the film mostly succeeds at telling it. Unfortunately, during pretty much the entire film, I couldn't get two earlier (and far superior) films of investigative journalism out of my mind: "All The President's Men" and "Spotlight". I kept comparing this movie to those movies, because many of the narrative beats feel similar. It's when "She Said" tries to get emotional in some flashbacks and "what if" scenes that it really falters. For one, most of these scenes feel really extraneous or unnecessary to the story the filmmakers are really trying to tell. For another, it takes the viewer out of the main story and makes the film unnecessarily long. This isn't a film where the 2+ runtime feels justified. At times it feels more like a television production than a true feature film, mostly because it doesn't feel sharp enough. There are several moments in "She Said" that are obviously indebted to the "Deep Throat" revelations in ATPM or the Stanley Tucci scenes in "Spotlight", but these attempts at dramatic bombshells mostly don't really work. The acting is good, but the writing just feels serviceable.
And then we have the dramatic versions of the newspaper organizations that surround our main characters. It's impossible not to think of ATPM or "Spotlight" here, because both of those films are filled to the absolute brim with amazing actors delivering incredibly sharp dialogue. In "She Said" I found myself thinking "oh, that's Jack Warden or Jason Robards or Michael Keaton, just not nearly as good." This is unfortunate, because the actors playing New York Times staffers in "She Said" are mostly well known talents playing real people. So why do they feel like cardboard cutouts? They don't seem like real people or movie characters. They're just kind of there.
A decent movie that could've been handled way better.
Johann_Cat - 17 September 2023 Technically Stilted, Pacing Awkward I was fully prepared to be swept along by a painful and dramatic docudrama, but the film often pushed me into an uncomfortable awareness of its artifice. This movie seemed stilted and uncomfortable--with its script, its actors, and even the technology of filmmaking, somewhat in the way that early talkies often had strained, wooden performances and mixed new awkwardness with old melodrama. The direction of the film, its awkward shifts between busy city-scenes and stiff shots of people talking at tables, as well as the pace of the drama and dialogue, betrayed a technical uncertainty about how to dramatize a story that would seem hard to mess up .
In sympathy with its tragic, factual basis, most reviews of this film describe an experience that could be readerly; the facts of this are indeed traumatic, dramatic, and affecting--but the film is not. As a film, the cinematography tends to swing, as if in a beginners' experiment in how to create drama, between very wide establishing shots that are meant to suggest that "the story is big" and that "much of society is careless" and "the key figures, the journalists, labor in a vast and indifferent landscape," etc and tedious office scenes. One such early contrast of the "vast" and the "confined" might work, but as a recurrent conceit in the film, it becomes tedious and drama-diffusing; these contrasts of the big and small didn't make me care more about the figures at the heart of this; the tactic felt crass. The script also was filled with clichés of family life meant to emphasize the personal, empathetic sides of these characters (as they must be stoical and resilient in their work) in ways that seemed so stale and second-hand, as if the conceits were dictated by AI. Sometimes the actors themselves seemed to struggle with the frozen-dinner conventionalities of the script.
On top of the clichéd nature of the storytelling and cinematography, the actors' interactions often seemed drugged and unreal. I think this "difficult pace" was a directorial choice to emphasize that the full scope of Weinstein's abuse was hard to reveal, for a variety of systemic, sometimes violent, defense systems in Hollywood and beyond. True, but ironically, this violence and its system wasn't made vivid, and its burden doesn't mean that the pace of conversations should sound like the actors, or the director setting the pace, are woolly from an accidental afternoon sleep or, at times, on barbiturates. The drama of this story that this movie frequently muffles in its artificiality is to the veritable fore in Ronan Farrow's podcast "Catch and Kill."
mactownfun - 6 June 2023 It's a must see. I love true story movies. Catching history in little 30 second sound bites rarely tells the whole story, an even if they do, it's hard to keep them pieced together in my mind. Not sure I learned a lot that I didn't already know, but it was good to see it in story form. We all know what a horrible monster Weinstein was, or thought we knew. This really puts a final stamp on it. I'll never watch another Miramax movie without wondering why they're still in business. Two great performances by the leads playing two great reporters and two great women. And definitely hats off and two thumbs up to Ashley Judd, both for her part in the story and her part in this movie.
thinkMovies - 1 January 2023 The size of the shark matters. 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.
ejazbutt-70580 - 23 December 2022 Engaging but distanced I was hoping for a bit more gripping build up and considering the topic, was hoping for a more choked dramatisation, the type that you feel genuinely disgusted and disturbed by the reality of what a famous powerful man can do and get away with.
Instead the directing was very loose, very low key, with no tightness to the pace or tension build up. Cary who is usually so good, just looks distanced and distracted, like she needs to go to another film set.
Otherwise it is engaging as you need to know how things unfold, but it's not due to the direction, acting or screenplay, just simply because it's Weinstein.
SnoopyStyle - 18 December 2022 tough and compelling New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) does a story on Donald Trump in 2016. Despite her efforts, Trump gets elected anyways. She is hounded by threats and struggles with depression after giving birth. Meanwhile, her fellow reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) is starting to investigate Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
I was reluctant to get into this movie. Yuck! That's the one word that keeps coming to my mind. Quite frankly, some of the assault scenes are very disturbing. The worst is probably the real voice recording of an encounter. Outside of those, this is a very compelling investigative journalism movie. The acting is first rate. The story is compelling. It's a very tough subject matter, but a very compelling watch.
gshrak - 11 December 2022 Weinstein'S shadow is still lurking I can't believe a movie like this, didn't stick in the bix office. All I can think about that people like Weinstein and people who protected him are still there in the Movies industry.
This movie is about bravery, zero against 10 in terms of power. Naked Women's words against well protected highly respected and fully equipped man. Who repeatedly and with no shame violated women's right and justified their ability to a figure of amusement.
Two journalists covered a report about sexual abuse and exposed a decades of sexual misconduct and intimidation in Hollywood.
Yet again as the beginning of this investigation/ Story a movie that is well made dies quickly.
Xstal - 7 December 2022 Disclosure With No End... 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 metaphorical 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.
A_Different_Drummer - 6 December 2022 Carey Mulligan has never given a bad performance Carey Mulligan has never given a bad performance. And Carey Mulligan doing an American accent is a special treat for filmgoers and fans alike. However, it cannot be said that Mulligan has never appeared in a bad movie, and SHE SAID comes as close to that definition as any movie released this year. The pseudo-documentary "Spotlight"-style presentation only works if the audience engages. And, for the audience to engage, there has to be a teaser, a problem to be solved, a puzzle, an endgame. None of that here. Nada. This is literally a rehash of old news with nothing new added. The only dramatic tension for many in the audience will be -- how long is the film and when will it end? (Answer: 2 hours; 9 minutes but it will seem like 3, maybe 4, hours). The larger question, the elephant in the room, is why was it released now, and why are the professional critics' reviews so much more positive than the reviews from IMDb members? The answer to that question lies in the complicated battleground of geopolitics, and readers are left to the puzzle that one out on their own. Hint: the answer lies at the beginning of the film, not the end. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))
evanston_dad - 1 December 2022 Solid If Uninspired A solid if uninspired film about the two New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein scandal and ushered in the MeToo movement.
Taking a cue from films like "All the President's Men" and "Spotlight," the film goes for sober realism rather than glamorized excitement, and it focuses on the dogged and often frustrating details around trying to gather together the pieces of a story worth publishing. It's not as gripping as either of those movies, though, and I'm not sure why. It's got all the ingredients, but something's just missing. It's almost restrained to a fault.
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are excellent as the two journalists, and I always enjoy Patricia Clarkson. But Samantha Morton, who I haven't seen in forever, comes out of nowhere to deliver the film's most memorable performance in what amounts to a cameo. It's a strong actress who can be on screen for no more than five minutes or so yet leave you remembering nothing but her. Unfortunately, that's also an indication that movie around her wasn't very memorable.