‘She Said’ Review: Maria Schrader’s rousing journalistic drama
It wasn’t until October 5, 2017, that systemic abuse from across decades of Hollywood practice was finally exposed by New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, exposing the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein as a rapist and sexual abuser. Sparking the assembly of the #MeToo movement in the wake of the exposé, the work of Kantor and Twohey has forever changed the makeup of modern Hollywood for the better.
The sheer gravity of this groundbreaking article is hard to truly wrangle five years after its publication, which makes Maria Schrader’s latest drama about the incident a timely release. Named after the titular book by Kantor and Twohey, the drama, adapted for the screen by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the screenwriter of the 2013 Oscar-winner Ida, is a rousing reminder of the power of comprehensive journalism.
Doggedly persistent in their journalistic duties, Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Twohey (Carey Mulligan) spend much of their time focused on the ever-growing light at the end of the tunnel, keeping their phones close by at all times, as if they were vital organs. Calling Weinstein’s victims and badgering his colleagues, the pair steadily build a case, with Schrader giving the film the time to breathe organically, experiencing the case grow from a mere concept to a revolutionary piece of journalism.
Barely having the time to eat a whole apple, Mulligan’s Twohey is the beating heart of Schrader’s movie, with the actor making a compelling duo alongside Kazan, whose role as a passionate, staunch journalist is excellently realised. Together they peddle the creation of an important story, becoming the conduits through which the voices of several victims can be heard.
Whilst much of their investigation takes place on the streets of San Francisco, New York, London and Newquay (or ‘New-qway’ as Kantor humorously remarks), the work of the duo is at its most fluid when it’s functioning in unison with the rest of the New York Times machine. Creating a feverish excitement that something good is bubbling up from the hard floor of the office, the board meetings vibrate with the same energy as the trading floor of the stock market, just without the egotistical venom, as Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson) and Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) provide invaluable insight as the editors of the newspaper.
It all gels together to create a powerful story that is equally comprehensive and enjoyable, much like the revelatory writing of Kantor and Twohey themselves. Detailing a vice of power that evades detection through sly manipulation and the deplorable abuse of authority, Schrader’s film addresses a systemic problem that is being increasingly swilled out of contemporary culture, like the backwash of hatred that it is.
With a rousing score from Nicholas Britell, which ticks in the background and slowly swells in stature in unison with Kantor and Twohey’s word count, Schrader creates a film loyal to its source material without feeling like a cheap piece of headline-grabbing cinema. Considering the work of the New York Times journalists should go down as one of the most important exposés in contemporary history, Schrader does an extraordinary job consolidating their legacy.
