'She Said' And 'The Menu' Put My Micro-Targeting Theory To The Test
#201: "She Said," "The Menu," Planes, Trains and Automobiles," "Andor"
Edition 201:
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She Said
The best docudramas — think The Social Network, or First Man — produce a real life story so thoroughly that it’s impossible to know where the fact ends and the fiction begins. Watching the movie becomes historical education as much as entertainment. In many cases, as I’ve talked about before, the fictionalized version ends up becoming the definitive account of the event (though I wonder if that effect is lessened now because no one goes to see these movies anymore).
She Said is the definitive account of the Harvey Weinstein saga, told through the eyes of a pair of New York Times journalists who fought to bring the story to light, first in the newspaper and then in a book and finally on the big screen. The movie is detailed, meticulous, and to my eye completely fact-checked in its construction, perhaps to match the on-screen investigative journalism or perhaps because the filmmakers feel the story too important to take creative liberty.
The effect is to forget you’re watching a movie, which is one of the great compliments that can be given to any fictional story. My worries were the characters’ worries rather than how the movie was put together. I couldn’t tell you about the music, or the cinematography, or the editing, but I can admit to you that I literally shed tears during one climactic phone call.
Reflecting on it a few days later, I’m actually kind of bothered by how much I liked this movie, because of how perfectly I fit it’s demographic. It’s a movie that makes journalism seem heroic, and I’m a journalist — not only that, but one who worked at the New York Times. I knew exactly what it was like to find sources, do tough interviews, negotiate to get information on the record, search for documents, and deal with PR blowback. I felt the movie in my soul, and inspired me in my real life work.
Obviously, it won’t have that affect on many others.
This movie year seems to be unifying around the central theme of decentralization, and every week it seems we talk about the same thing. The movie landscape is fragmenting, and now each subgroup gets their one special cinematic offering. Obviously, I enjoy my micro-targeted bullseye. But I don’t want to fall into the trap of judging a movie’s quality based entirely upon how much I am able to identify or agree with its subject matter — the way I knocked Armageddon Time a few weeks ago because I didn’t “get it.”
So I can find the movie’s flaws. It’s not as viscerally thrilling as All The President’s Men, or as emotionally powerful as Spotlight. It’s perhaps too caught up in the process of the job when the most interesting things are happening on the other side of the recorder. It’s also a movie with a pretty strong point of view, in favor of the women survivors, a stance that certainly would never be opposed by anyone but perhaps works to the movie’s detriment (for example, I didn’t like the decision to cast survivors like Ashley Judd as herself in the movie…from a purely filmmaking standpoint. From a social standpoint, giving her a heroic moment is pretty awesome).
Outside of the journalism, I think the movie deserves enormous credit for producing one of the strongest stories of female professional excellence I can remember on screen. Our heroines are seen juggling their all-consuming jobs with home lives, pregnancy, kids, husbands, in a way that stretches them but never sets up the false dichotomy of “have to choose one or the other” like so many movie women before. They’re real struggling human beings, but capable of excellence in a way that sadly feels revolutionary on the silver screen.
Of course, it helps when the two women are being played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. If I can point to the movie’s one obvious Hollywood lie, it’s that journalists do not look like this, dress like this, or have half the charisma of these two. Mulligan in particular is badass woman incarnate, a perfect actor for the more traditionally heroic arc here and in turn she gets all the best and funniest moments. Her and Kazan both pull off the frumpled, anxiety-ridden journalist act well — the way they move, the way they talk to each other — but do so slightly better than any real life counterpart ever could. It’s aspirational, in the same way Robert Redford and Dennis Hoffman portrayed the job back in the 70s.
Admittedly, journalists do make great movie protagonists, though, because they can serve as an audience surrogate who finds out information at the same time as viewers do. That’s why, in this case, it really seems like the primary objective of the movie is to give us as much true facts as possible about this particular investigation and the systems which propped up the monstrous acts.
The real life Weinstein story launched the #MeToo movement that changed the world, and though the work is certainly not done, this movie feels like something of a victory lap. And if there’s one thing we know Oscar voters love, it’s feeling like a societal problem is solved by the time the credits roll.
Something New
The Menu (Theaters): What do you know, another micro-targeted for me, and any other people who might identify themselves as “foodies” (sidenote: I’m learning this group is quite large, since in an episode of the latest season of “Love is Blind” one contestant tells her date she’s a huge foodie before five seconds later asking him what sashimi is). Set in an ultra-luxury fine dining restaurant on a fictional island, a group of rich strangers show up to experience a Michelin-starred chef’s tasting menu. Things of course go horribly wrong from there.
The movie quite effectively makes fun of all aspects of dining culture: restaurant reviewers, rich regulars, Instagram bloggers, and Netflix’s “Chef’s Table.” Its observations are razor sharp and the movie is actually very funny, excelling as long as it sticks to satirical comedy and shies away from preachy “what this says about the culture” philosophizing.
Ralph Fiennes was a perfect casting for the maniac perfectionist chef, and Anya Taylor-Joy continues to pitch metaphorical no-hitters while throwing the single acting pitch she knows 105 mph. The rest of the dinner guests are really smartly written and varied from one another, but let down by some unknowable combination of casting and acting performance. One could imagine how much better this movie would’ve been with a Knives Out-level ensemble, but the constrictions of what appears to be a very limited, one-location budget of course prohibits that dream from gaining any traction.
Still, I will happily back any movie this year that’s having fun and coming in under two hours run time (a category whose entries I could count on one hand). If you’re someone who’s into food-related content, I promise you’ll love this movie.
Something Old
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987, Paramount+): There is not a long list of great Thanksgiving movies, but this John Hughes classic is worth revisiting. It stars Steve Martin as a guy just trying to get home to Chicago for turkey day, but when misfortune strikes (including one of the greatest exasperated customer service scenes in movie history) he must team up with John Candy and grit his teeth through the ensuing hijinks. If you’ve seen the Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis movie Due Date, this may sound familiar.
It’s an infinitely quotable and hilarious movie that doubles down on the sentimental tear-jerker “meaning of the season” type stuff at the end, in classic 1980s fashion. It’s the type of movie you could realistically rewatch every year around this time.
Something to Stream
Andor (Disney+): The shocker of the year, as far as I’m concerned, is just how great this Star Wars adjacent series is considering the seemingly impermeable battle lines between commercial IP and quality storytelling. Then again, maybe this is what happens when you hand over the keys to a galaxy far, far away to creative genius like Tony Gilroy — the writer behind the Bourne movies and Michael Clayton.
The story is grounded and intense, giving as much time to little character moments as huge action sequences. The group of actors they found to inhabit the eclectic characters are awesome. And the world feels real and lived in, casting the empire as a bureaucratic mess and the rebellion as a disorganized dream. Is it heresy to say this is probably my favorite Star Wars story ever??
Trailer Watch: White Noise
Most of the conversation around this movie revolves around Netflix’s willingness to hand a blockbuster-sized check to an indie filmmaker like Noah Baumbach, but this trailer definitely shows you were that money went. It’s a huge, apocalyptic, neon-painted canvas that has fun with 80s nostalgia while also harnessing Baumbach’s signature human touch. Early reviews say this movie is very specific and may not be for everyone, but the combo of Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle definitely peaks my interest. Could this be the movie that breaks the Netflix cold streak!?