Movie Review: She Said
A new movie documents the assault accusations that brought down the abusive movie mogul Harvey Weinstein
She Said is a wonderful movie that follows New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor, played by Zoe Kazan, and Megan Twohey, played by Carey Mulligan, as the two unravel the countless sexual assault crimes committed by Harvey Weinstein. It follows the two reporters as they interview women that worked directly with Harvey and were rumored to have had relations with him. The majority of the movie takes place in 2017, and begins with Twohey just finishing up her articles exposing the sexual assault cases of former president Donald Trump and preparing to have her baby. It then shifts to Kantor who is finally home with her husband and children after also coming off of a case. Over the next few days, Kantor begins hearing about the corruption in Hollywood after trying to begin a story about sexual assault in the workplace, then receives a tip that actress Rose McGowan had been sexually assaulted by the esteemed movie producer, Harvey Weinstein, and a story begins to unfold. Through the next few weeks, Kantor faces hardships as many of her leads led to ladies who signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or were too traumatized to talk. Twohey, after returning from her maternity leave, decides to join Kantor in getting justice for the victims of Weinstein. Between the two of them, they travel all over the the United States and various other countries to interview both women and men who worked with Weinstein, as well as his legal team and him himself. As the two further investigate, they face threats and people telling them not to continue to look into Mr. Weinstein, as anyone who has thus far has been shut down. Nevertheless, the two persevere, and continue to report and write their story, and eventually convince three women to go on record by name to speak out against him.
As an amateur journalist myself, I was fascinated by their reporting process. There were many similarities, such as following leads and doing extensive research, reaching out to various persons of interest, and recording and taking notes during in person and online interviews. However, there were many differences, just because a lot of their process was done on a much larger scale. An example of this is that in the movie, Jodi Kantor traveled to other countries just to interview a few of these women, whereas I would never travel that far and if I did need to speak with someone that far, it would most likely be over the computer. The movie also appealed to me as a woman. I found it so disheartening to see so many cases of sexual assault from such a powerful man with little to no justice in the beginning. Both of the reporters in the movie were not only women, but they were also mothers. They and their families had to sacrifice a lot in order for them to be able to go out and report, such as Kantor’s husband and older child taking off work to take care of her younger child or Twohey’s husband taking off work to take care of their infant. Both of the reporters also talk about their struggle with postpartum depression in the movie, and they also faced threats against them or their families if they continued to uncover the stories about Weinstein. It was compelling to me to see how even through having to sacrifice so much they both collectively decided they were so passionate about the story and getting justice for the victims that they continued to report.
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Berlyn Thompson is a current junior at Brownell Talbot. She was on the Verbatim staff in the 2020-2021 school year and is back this semester because she...