She Said trailer reveals Hollywood’s attempt to reckon with Harvey Weinstein
Carey Mulligan and Zoey Kazan star as the New York Times journalists who published the bombshell report on Weinstein's crimes
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The bombshell New York Times report that took down serial sexual abuser Harvey Weinstein will be immortalized in the upcoming film She Said, directed by Maria Schrader. A new trailer, reminiscent of Spotlight, depicts the tense journey to get the full, shocking story on the record.
Carey Mulligan and Zoey Kazan star as Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, respectively, in this adaptation of the journalists’ book of the same name. The trailer follows the two women down the rabbit hole as they uncover the truth and struggle to hold onto it at the same time, encountering obstacles–NDAs, anxious sources, literal doors slammed in their faces–at every turn. Rounding out the cast are Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Ehle, Tom Pelphrey and Adam Shapiro.
Weinstein inevitably looms large over the film, though the man himself is curiously treated like an elusive specter through images of hotel rooms in disarray, a shot of the back of his head, or an intimidating but disembodied voice on speakerphone. The effect, at least in the trailer, is of a Boogeyman-esque villain (when truthfully, this type of abuser is all too common and typically seem to hide in plain sight).
An interesting aspect of the film is that Brad Pitt counts among the producers. In one of the follow-up pieces to the original Weinstein story, Gwyneth Paltrow recalled Pitt confronting and threatening Weinstein after she informed her then-boyfriend of his sexual harassment. Pitt continued to work with Weinstein, even after his wife Angelina Jolie shared the severity of her own encounter with him; Jolie later said the continued association was something the couple “fought” about.
Pitt’s involvement is just one reason to ask: is Hollywood capable of fictionalizing an event so close to its own rotting heart? Weinstein may be the business’ most infamous predator, but his crimes are not an isolated incident–the industry is still undoubtedly littered with abusers and those complicit in abuse.
Even the industry’s attempts to combat these issues has proven deeply flawed: Time’s Up, the female-led organization that sprung up in the wake of the #MeToo movement, faced a major overhaul last year when it was revealed that its leadership had counseled then-governor Andrew Cuomo amidst his own sexual assault scandal.
In other words, this may not be a subject that Hollywood can tackle with any objectivity, or even self-awareness. We’ll see if She Said can rise to the challenge when it hits theaters November 18, 2022.
53 Comments
can’t think of anything more hollywood than making a congratulatory movie about a problem they’ve barely solved 1% of.
Agreed. This film just seems tactless. Leave it to Hollywood to run a victory lap when the race has only started.
Yep…..definitely a ‘round of applause for us pinning down one egregious shitbag while a myriad of this bullshit continues to happen on a regular basis’
Yeah it has a real “Mission Accomplished” energy to it doesn’t it
There’s still benefit to every declaration that abusers aren’t invincible.But yes, there’ll certainly be a lot of “Problem solved! Now we need never speak of it again!”-ing in various corner offices.
The trailer clearly emphasizes the journalists who broke the story, so I fail to see how “congratulatory” it actually is on that alone. We also have no idea what kind of tone the movie itself is going to land on, so I wouldn’t be quick to judge.
Did you feel Spotlight played like a victory lap around the Catholic Church? Did All the President’s Men solve corruption? Did The Insider stop smoking? Every day, everywhere, Law & Order is available to watch somewhere. Is “original recipe” the solution to murder and does “Special Victims” think they have ended sex crimes?The trailer makes it look like the film is about two investigative reporters investigating, with their publisher and editors helping them fine tune the result. The spectre of Weinstein may be looming over the film and it is the investigation of his crimes depicted, but the trailer seems to be about the reporting.
I see your point, but the major difference here is that this particular expose is about a major figure in their own industry, featuring the involvement of several people who worked with that figure. That’s gonna carry some baggage the other movies didn’t just by default.
I’d say Richard Nixon and the Catholic Church were major figures in their industry. Sure, they were not primarily filmmakers, but I see nothing in the trailer to indicate this film is anything but the reporters’ story.If it makes you feel better, I haven’t seen it, but I assume the film will end with white letters on a black background giving an update as to what has happened with the story, what has happened with the reporters and then it will probably end on a card with statistics about sexual harassment in the film industry implying or even explicitly saying that the struggle continues.
I’d say Richard Nixon and the Catholic Church were major figures in their industry.
When I said “their own industry,” that “their” is referring to the people telling this particular story, ie Hollywood. Official government statements on political corruption and Vatican statements on the child abuse scandal are treated with the same degree of extreme skepticism.And considering this is produced by Brad Pitt, who was well aware of Weinstein’s abuses for decades (he’s admitted as much, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie both told him their first-hand accounts of it in the 90s) and yet continued to work with him, that skepticism seems warranted.
Brad Pitt produces a lot of stuff. His Plan B Entertainment is both a movie and TV powerhouse. Sure, Brad knew Gwyneth and Angelina’s story, as did Gwyneth and Angelina, who are both very powerful in their own right and both firmly rooted as Hollywood legacies.I don’t know the dude, but his name is on a lot of stuff and a lot of it looks like business decisions. (Lego Masters) Just because his name is on it doesn’t mean he was actually involved in the production and even if he were, the film looks like it will be very profitable,
Brad Pitt produces a lot of stuff.
Yes, but the rest of it doesn’t involve an expose of a colleague he worked with for decades. There’s nothing notable about him producing Okja.
Brad knew Gwyneth and Angelina’s story, as did Gwyneth and Angelina, who
are both very powerful in their own right and both firmly rooted as
Hollywood legaciesI’m… not sure what point you’re making here, or how it ties back into “this is getting more scrutiny than Spotlight or All The President’s Men because in this case the storytellers and the industry being examined are one and the same.”
the film looks like it will be very profitable
I really don’t know how what point you’re making here. Nobody’s talking about its potential profitability.
Like you, I’ve heard the meme that Pitt worked with Weinstein after he knew that he had harassed his girlfriend, but an Advanced Name Search on IMDB shows Pitt did a cameo in George Clooney’s “Confession of a Dangerous Mind” and another in Soderbergh’s “Full Frontal”, both of which listed the Weinsteins among their many producers and the only Miramax film in which he starred after the incident was Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”.(To be fair, Ms. Paltrow actually appeared in many more Miramax films.)I don’t really see how you can say Pitt worked with Weinstein for decades unless there’s a plethora of titles that don’t come up in an IMDB advanced search and I don’t see how one can jump to the conclusion that a movie about investigative reporters, based on a book by the investigative reporters, promoted with a trailer focused entirely on their reporting is a potential whitewashing of problems in the film industry… all because the film is from Brad Pitt’s company and he did a Tarantino thirteen years later, plus cameoed in a couple of his friends’ films.Maybe the trailer read differently to you and the OP, I don’t know, but if that’s what you took from the trailer, one does have to wonder if your positions are that the reporters’ story should not be a movie, or would the movie have only been legit if it produced by a company whose principal never met Harvey Weinstein?
She Said 1:25 Soviet remote viewer describing a installation in Virginia the clothing places this in the 1970s she’s the kid with the baseball bat who works for the Keanu Reeves character at the motel in the movie The Neon Demon the background is the photo booth in the movie The Replacement Killers someone is going to get murdered because you did this
First of all, I’m not sure the movie’s going to be congratulatory — it’s striking that it took a group of outsiders to reveal this story to the public, despite how well known it apparently was inside Hollywood. If anything, the movie seems to be praising dedicated reporters at the New York Times and women who had the courage to come forward with their stories.And while we should be clear-eyed about the limits of what the Weinstein story accomplished, we also shouldn’t be needlessly bleak about it (particularly in a time when there’s plenty to feel bleak about). There really has been a seemingly lasting rise in sensitivity about sexual misconduct in Hollywood, with everyone from Kevin Spacey to Frank Langella getting called out for conduct they’d clearly gotten away with bef. I’m hopeful that these stories are also having an effect in a way that’s difficult to measure but at least as important —getting people to abstain from creepy, abusive conduct because of fear of consequences. I’d far prefer to have someone think about doing something creepy and then hesitate, then catch them and punish them after the fact.
That would be great if this was an Oscar front-runner and then they reject all of their nominations as a response to all the Weinstein Oscars.
This whole movie doesn’t sit right with me for a number of reasons, one of which being Zoe Kazan starring in a movie that attempts to take Hollywood to task for their systemic blacklisting of certain artists.
Did I miss a memo where Zoe Kazan has to answer for her grandfather’s actions decades before she was born? What kind of local mafia chieftan-ass BS is this?
Given that she works in the same industry and her success in that industry is due in no small part to her family name/history – yeah I think it’s fair game.
Ah so she shouldn’t have a career based on something done generations before that she had no part of? Are you from the Old Testament or something?
I didn’t say she shouldn’t have a career. I just think it’s fair to point out that a big part of the reason she has that career is the nepotism in coming from a family that benefitted off of actively blacklisting contemporaries.
She is also an extremely mediocre performer, always a scion alert
Yes, I remember when Zoe Kazan famously blacklisted artists in the 1950’s.
You’re right, I’m sure Zoe Kazan’s success in Hollywood has nothing to do with her family. She made it purely on her own merit.
Nepotism =/= “systemic blacklisting of certain artists”
In this instance I think they’re intertwined. Elia Kazan sold out his contemporaries and as a result went on to have a legendary career, which in turn Zoe Kazan benefitted from.
Elia Kazan was already a Best Director winner almost 5 years before he gave HUAC testimony and would still be remembered for Streetcar if nothing else, so I don’t think you can argue he had a legendary career as a result of his testimony.
What are you asking us to do here? Avoid Kazan’s movies?
“The sins of the (grand) father…”
Pepperidge Farm remembers. But we wish we could forget. Why are we cursed with this perfect memory! Why?!
I don’t think this movie is about blacklisting.
Mira Sorvino, Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd and more have claimed that Weinstein attempted to blacklist them. Peter Jackson and Terry Zwigoff have both confirmed that they were essentially told not to cast Sorvino or Judd when they were working for Miramax.
Fuck each and every Kazan right back through eternity. Rat fucks.
thank you
Elia Kazan was a shitbag for reasons that had nothing to do with his HUAC testimony. Google “elia kazan carol drinkwater” and you’ll find out about some Weinstein-esque, casting-couch behaviour ol’ Elia indulged in.
You’re right. We should express our disapproval of blacklisting by punishing Kazan professionally, due to the people with whom she is associated.
It’s like someone copied Tom McCarthy’s notes from Spotlight.
I was surprised by the number of British accents in that trailer.
“’Allo, guv! ‘Ere! Wot’s this ‘Arvey Weinstein doing with ‘is little tallywacker near me fanny?!”
Tallywacker is scottish
Tadger, then.
Look mate, most yer ‘Muricans don’t know the fookin’ difference anyway.
Someone’s been watching Moon Knight 😉
Actually I haven’t. Must’ve just got lucky.
That is some blunt, on-the-nose dialogue, huh?
Yeah, I’m hoping it’s just the way the trailer’s cut, because otherwise, hoo boy are we in for 2 hours of the most hoary clichés.
Kevin Spacey as Weinstein was a bold choice.
Feels a lot like Hollywood decided not to circle the wagons around Harvey because he was juuuuuust a bit too much of a dick, and recut filmmakers’ movies juuuuuust a bit too often. So they took a step back and let him go down hard and fast. But they’ll let the other monsters slide.
Is it me or does the trailer make this movie not look very good. I am not some MRA anti #MeToo dude or anything. I am glad women were able to speak out and that at least some men had justice served to them. But this movie just doesn’t look very good, at least from the trailer imho
I hate to say it, but the trailer looks just terrible. It’s the kind of movie where they say super obvious things and people nod like it’s a genius statement (example: when one of the reporters suggests getting people on the record by saying it will help protect people in the future, and many other moments). It’s also clearly the kind of movie where people say things like “in Hollywood sexual harrassment is pervasive,” and a room of veteran NYTimes journalists look shocked like they didn’t know this was the case. What kind of 2017 world is this movie set in? It makes me sad because this is a genuinely astonishing story, of having this story about one monstrous guy abusing women leading to so many other revelations and pushes for change. Personally, for me, #MeToo as an unfolding of events in 2017 and as a movement, was transformational and my life is extremely far removed from Hollywood. So I’m totally the person they should want to reach with this movie, but instead we get a script written by teenagers pretending to be screenwriters, it seems. Very unfortunate and disappointing!
Anyone else besides me notice that the alleged truth & reconciliation movement of 2017- has exCLUsively focused on Jewish men and men of color? When oh when will it be Jimmy Page’s turn!!
He’s not Jewish!
(Is he?)
Apparently it was well known that this guy was a creepy predator. Yet, nothing til now. https://deadline.com/2022/07/rape-scrubs-eric-weinberg-arrest-lapd-george-gascon-1235064494/