‘She Said’ Is an Absorbing Historical Record With Lasting Impact

‘She Said’ Is an Absorbing Historical Record With Lasting Impact

By Lynn Venhaus
“She Said” is a brilliant chronicle of a watershed moment in American society — an important tipping point that helped launch the #MeToo movement and gave voice to countless victims.

In October 2017, two New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Jodi Kantor) broke the shocking story about sexual assault in Hollywood, able to get women on the record about powerful producer Harvey Weinstein’s three decades of abuse, shattering years of silence and altered American culture forever.

Framed as a scrupulous workplace account of two driven working mothers juggling their journalism careers and their young families, filmmakers infer that they helped make the world a better place for their daughters.

The absorbing narrative is as accurate as possible about journalism and the need to tell such important stories. Through vivid revelations, they show how much courage it took for people to come forward, risking their reputations and livelihoods.

With laser focus, director Maria Schrader has meticulously built a riveting drama from a sharp, incisive script by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who adapted the 2019 nonfiction bestseller “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement” by New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor.

The filmmakers’ skill and concern detailing a reporter’s process and a newspaper’s commitment to seeking the truth without any sensationalism or exploitation has resulted in a historic record that is in the same league as “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight.”

The cast is stellar across the board, with Zoe Kazan, as persistent Jodi Kantor, and Carey Mulligan, as resilient Megan Twohey, presenting each reporter’s dogged determination, integrity, and professionalism. 

As an energetic team, they pound the pavement tracking down sources who worked for Miramax and The Weinstein Company, arrange meetings and convince people to trust them with the evidence. Women who were actresses, production assistants and employees agreed to go on record, and these truth tellers caused an explosion felt from coast to coast once articles were published in 2017.

Kantor and Twohey, who are still at the Times, won Pulitzer Prizes for their work here, along with Ronan Farrow, whose work at the New Yorker was going on at the same time.

But while the aftermath is brought up as the film’s coda, this 129-minute film stresses the diligent meat-and-potatoes work that exposed the insidiousness of rampant sexual harassment in Hollywood, and how broken the system was for women.

Schrader makes sure we hear powerful men shouting at the women, trying to intimidate them, but she also uses real voice transcriptions.

While it may not be as explosive cinematically as superhero adventures, the theme of right vs. might hits hard from people not wearing capes but whose guideposts are truth and justice. Patricia Clarkson plays conscientious Times editor Rebecca Corbett and Andrew Braugher portrays no-nonsense executive editor Dean Baquet as they make crucial decisions in covering the substantial allegations.

Fine actresses portray the brave past Weinstein employees who described his predatory sexual misconduct including Jennifer Ehle as Laura Madden, Samantha Morton as Zelda Perkins, Angela Yeoh as Rowena Chiu. Ashley Judd, who broke the dam by publicly coming forward, plays herself.

Important voice work is done by Mike Houston as Weinstein, Keilly McQuail as Rose McGowan and James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump. Johnson is best known for his interpretations on “Saturday Night Live.”

As the supportive spouses, Tom Pelphrey plays Megan’s literary-agent husband Vadim “Jim” Rutman and Adam Shapiro is Kantor’s fellow Times writer, columnist Jim Lieber. They add the emotional element of how difficult life-work balance is.

Composer Nicholas Britell’s dramatic score heightens the tension as people connected to the Weinstein empire confirm information and a deadline looms.

How many women have been helped or validated because of this story? Truly astounding what happened five years ago, and what continues. After their initial probe, more than 80 women accused Weinstein of crimes. Now a convicted rapist, the disgraced mogul eventually was sentenced to 23 years in prison and is currently on trial in another case.

“She Said” is so well-made and convincingly acted that it can’t help but continue much needed conversations at work and home. It’s an information-packed procedural with lasting impact.

“She Said” is a 2022 biographical drama directed by Maria Schrader and starring Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Andre Braugher and Patricia Clarkson. Rated R for language and descriptions of sexual assault, its run time is 2 hours, 9 minutes. It is in theaters Nov. 18.
Lynn’s Grade: A

‘Mank’ Technically Brilliant, Dense Story

‘Mank’ Technically Brilliant, Dense Story

By Lynn Venhaus
An unflinching look at the old studio system during the height of Hollywood’s Dream Factory persona, “Mank” is more than a backstory on “Citizen Kane,” pulling back the curtain on some unsavory wheeling-and-dealings of the era.

“Mank” follows screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s tumultuous development of Orson Welles’ iconic masterpiece in 1941, with flashbacks to old Hollywood in the 1930s, including labor disputes, politics and the studio tycoons.

Director David Fincher, known for his obsessive control, has carefully crafted a portrait of the complicated screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who died of alcoholism at age 55 in 1953. Mank, a newspaperman from New York, was one of the well-known Algonquin Round Table writers who migrated to Hollywood. He joined such luminaries as playwright George S. Kaufman, humorist S.J. Perlman and Ben Hecht as screenwriters under contract.

 While recovering from a broken leg, Mank is set up at a dusty, desolate ranch in Victorville, Calif., to write the screenplay with a 60-day deadline, free of distractions and surrounded by secrecy. 

John Houseman, who is part of Orson Welles’ fabled Mercury Players, has been assigned to watch over him. Houseman, who really won Best Supporting Actor for “The Paper Chase” in 1974, didn’t seem to be particularly fussy, but Sam Troughton plays him that way. Wunderkind Welles (Tom Burke) will tussle with Mank, but it is their crowning achievement.  

While best known for winning an Oscar for the screenplay of “Citizen Kane,’ which he reluctantly shared with Orson Welles – and was the only winner out of nine nominations, Mank also wrote “Dinner at Eight” and “The Pride of the Yankees,” among dozens of titles, and produced such Marx Brothers movies as “Duck Soup.”

The man himself was a prickly personality, an uncompromising writer with a sardonic wit and a wicked pen, disgruntled by the studio system and the guys who ran them. He did not suffer fools and was wary of those in power. Heavy drinking and gambling had sullied his reputation, but no one could deny his talent.

The cast is one of the finest assembled this year, helmed by Gary Oldman as the bruising wordsmith. It’s a towering portrayal—would we expect anything less from the Oscar winner? Oldman has affected an old-timey delivery for his epic battles with just about everyone but his long-suffering wife, dubbed “Poor Sara” (nicely portrayed by Tuppence Middleton).

The multi-layered story focuses on the ruthless movers-and-shakers – including a terrific Arliss Howard as cunning Louis B. Mayer at M-G-M and a steely Charles Dance as shrewd newspaper publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

At his castle in San Simeon, Hearst threw lavish dinner parties attended by the show business elite. One of his favorite guests, no matter how drunk or boorish he got, was Mank. The outspoken screenwriter was pals with Hearst’s mistress, actress Marion Davies, who is played by Amanda Seyfried in her best performance to date.

Other noteworthy performances include Ferdinand Kingsley as producer Irving Thalberg, Lily Collins as stenographer Rita Alexander, Jamie McShane as Shelly Metcalf and Ozark’s Tom Pelphrey as Joseph Mankiewicz, Herman’s brother who was also in the business (and wrote “All About Eve.”)

The score by Fincher’s go-to duo of Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor captures the period jazz and Big Band, and

While the meticulous production values are stunning, with its luxe black-and-white cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt, glamorous costume design by Trish Summerville and the grand production design by Donald Graham Burt, the dense plot of “Mank” is likely to keep some moviegoers at a distance. 

As it sprawls beyond the studio gates, the filmd takes detours into the 1934 gubernatorial race in California and industry politics, convoluting an already verbose narrative.

If you are not familiar with the backstory about the making of “Citizen Kane” or the real people on whose lives the characters are based, this may be a problem in digesting “Mank,” a very inside look at Hollywood as an industry who aimed at a market devastated by the Depression.

The director ‘s late father, Jack Fincher, who died in 2003, wrote this screenplay in the 1990s, for the film originally was supposed to be made after “The Game” in 1997. Rumor has it that Eli Roth did some polishing, but whether that’s true, the original script must have had to be reworked at some point.

One thing is certain, Hollywood loves to make movies about the making of movies. Fincher’s lens creates a bigger picture while concentrating on a few key players.

Fascinating, infuriating and rich with details, “Mank” the film is like Mank the person – hard to pin down but worth the time.

“Mank” is a biography-drama directed by David Fincher and starring Gary Oldman, Charles Dance, Arliss Howard, Amanda Seyfried, Tuppence Middleton, Lily Collins and Tom Pelphrey. Rated R for language, “Mank” is 2 hours and 11 minutes’ long. Lynn’s Grade: B-