Whenever a big story breaks, you would rarely find yourself googling about the people who wrote that story. There is a reason why journalists tell the stories of others, because their own is rarely interesting. She Said is about Jodi Kantor(played by Zoe Kazan) and Meghan Twohey(played by Carrey Mulligan), two journalists of The New York Times who were the first to break the story about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse in his company Miramax. The subsequent months saw the #metoo movement, undoubtedly one of the 21st century’s most important public movements. It is not a shy claim that without Jodi and Meghan’s work, the #metoo movement might not have seen the light of day. She Said follows the footsteps of journalistic films such as Spotlight and All the President’s Men. The stylistic influence is visible and director Maria Schrader wholeheartedly accepts it. She Said will probably not win any Oscars like Spotlight or All the President’s Men, but it is a film you cannot and should not ignore.

Unless you are reporting from a war zone, journalistic work can be plain boring. Its a lot of paperwork, reading documentation and maintaining excel sheets. There are lots of calls, most of which are unanswered. The ones who pick up might not answer you again, and some will straight away send you to their lawyers. Journalists will run door to door, sometimes travel thousands of miles just to get somebody on the record. What I love about She Said, is that it is such an accurate portrayal of real-life journalism. The slow pace, the dying leads, the imminent frustration and the constant effort. I was sceptical about watching the movie; I assumed it might be another example of a firebrand feminism movie depicting girl boss culture. But when I saw it was directed by Maria Schrader, who had previously directed Unorthodox, I decided to watch it. There is no pretence in this film; it categorically avoids being loud as if symbolically imitating the silence of the women abused by Harvey. The film doesn’t need to be loud and dramatic; the reality is enough. The film is all acting, acting and acting. There is a particular scene in a cafe where a survivor recounts her encounter with Harvey. With only her talking head shot, she invokes an emotional response in the viewer. It is the lingering silence after her words that get to you. The film also shows a bit about the personal lives of the journalists and how they are perpetually tired of juggling between work and family.

The film is structured as a thriller, but it asks for your patience to show its true colours. It starts off with a young lady walking her dog in rural Ireland, where she encounters a film crew. In the next scene, we see her running away as she sobs uncontrollably. Only in the end the film reveals who she was. In the scenes where the victims tell their stories, there is no graphic reenactment. Instead, it uses shots of the hotels where Harvey abused many women for over three decades. A frightened pale voice retells a horrific story as the camera slowly moves in the empty hallways of the hotels. The film steers away from the generic Netflix-type storytelling of high-tempo music and whoosh-wash editing. I found Harvey’s portrayal very interesting; his face is never revealed in the film. As many women said, they were afraid of his monstrous personality, how he would break into fits of rage. Director Maria Schrader only uses Harvey’s voice to show his intimidating personality. His deep, loud voice makes you feel that there is a living, breathing monster on the other side of the line. At the climax, the film shows a backshot of Harvey walking into the New York Times office. The film prepares you for the finale; it exhausts you with all the failed leads and the never-ending effort to find a quotable source. In the end, when the entire news crew assembles to proofread the article one last time and press the publish button, you might find yourself taking a breath of relief. Finally, it’s done; it’s over. I think the movie achieves what it set out to do, which is to empathise with the journalists and the survivors.

You can watch the trailer here