Her boss yells at her and humiliates her to write him an apology for every so-called mistake, pummeling her will into self-preservation.
“The Assistant'' psychologically explores all the little ways someone trying to do the right thing meets resistance. As Jane tearfully gets up to leave, he tells her not to worry: “You’re not his type.” When Jane finally works up the courage to report him to a HR representative (a chilling Matthew Macfadyen), he waves off her concerns and warns that her report could end her career. When her boss disappears, all her coworkers seem to know where he’s gone. A young woman from Idaho flies in for a job likes hers and the company puts her up at a fancy hotel. A woman she’s never seen before stops by to pick it up. She finds an earring in her boss’ office. In the film, Jane ( Julia Garner) is a hardworking everywoman who treks into the office each morning from Queens when it’s still dark out.
Instead, this quiet, day-in-the-life drama breaks down the many ways employees are forced to tolerate bad behavior. Kitty Green’s remarkable “The Assistant” is about #MeToo and Harvey Weinstein without explicitly being about those things. Runners-up: “ Bacurau,” “ Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” “ I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” “ On the Rocks,” “ Sound of Metal,” “ Time,” “ The Vast of Night,” “ Vitalina Varela,” “ The Wolf House,” and “ Wolfwalkers” To read each critic's Top 10 individual list, click here. About the rankings: We asked our regular film critics and editors to submit top ten lists, ranked or unranked, and then consolidated them with a points system resulting in the list below, with a new entry for each awarded film.