She Said

She Said

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.

  • Released: 2022-11-17
  • Runtime: 129 minutes
  • Genre: Drama
  • Stars: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, Angela Yeoh, Tom Pelphrey, Adam Shapiro, Maren Heary, Sean Cullen, Anastasia Barzee, Keilly McQuail, Hilary Greer, Tina WongLu, Nancy Ellen Shore, Wesley Holloway, Stephen Dexter, Ruby Thomas, Emma Clare O'Connor, Brad Neilley, Stephanie Heitman, Jason Hewitt, Sujata Eyrick, Justine Colan, Steven Bitterman, Liam Edwards, Norah Feliciano, Kareemeh Odeh, Anita Sabherwal, Kelly Rian Sanson, Lauren Yaffe, George Walsh, Dalya Knapp, Maren Lord, Elle Graham
  • Director: Maria Schrader
 Comments
  • vostf - 15 March 2024
    Journalists, victims, investigative journalism. What else?
    Some will say it was important to bring this story to the widest audience possible, so here comes a fine adaptation of stellar investigative journalism. For me it is just fine because I would object that the movie doesn't stand out if you snip out all the specifics of the Harvey Weinstein case.

    The acting is good, but maybe direction is overdoing it quite a few times (make yourself at home, toss this out as mansplaining). And anyway those clean gentle dedicated NY journalists are not very interesting characters, not ones that carry a movie till the end.

    Yes, paradoxically this movie doesn't serve the larger purpose of denouncing and warning about sexual predators in the workplace, and narcissistic perverts at large. Actually a documentary would have been great, but impossible to achieve without having most of the victims mentioned in She Said giving another painful testimony about what they endured. So a re-enactment was the next best thing, absolutely, but if you are going to re-create why not leverage the powerful background of this specific case and build a real movie, a real thriller? Sticking to the facts, confirming sources is critical for journalism, but needs work to make an engaging cinematic storyline.

    As it stands She Said only caters to a small audience, most of whom already know the main points about the Weinstein case. So it is preaching to the choir. To me it is only a vanity project, adapting a Pulitzer prize and feeling proud about the subject matter, without adding anything constructive to the debate.
  • Sleepin_Dragon - 27 August 2023
    This film packs a punch.
    Two brave journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey work to unearth The Harvey Weinstein scandal, one of Hollywood's most powerful producers, who preyed on many women.

    It's a very powerful, thought provoking film, just over two hours long, but well paced and chillingly realistic, it's almost shocking to believe these events did actually happen. Very well made, very well acted, the story of how a dangerous predator was finally taken to task.

    There is something so sickening about NDA's they served to simply allow perpetrators to get away with their crimes scott free.

    It's a movement that seems to have changed the whole industry, exposing not just a single predatory individual, who misused his immense sense of power and control, but a whole network, a society that for two long remained protected.

    Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan deliver terrific performances, the pair truly deliver very powerful, very sincere performances, the pair combined particularly well.

    It's frightening to think how much has been brushed under the carpet over the years.

    This is a very powerful story.

    8/10.
  • JurijFedorov - 27 May 2023
    Actually not bad at all despite a few weird issues
    I was a bit apprehensive about watching the movie as these movies often turn out to be extremely political and biased and misconstrue the real history. The movie about the Fox News scandal for example included a 100% fictional character in the lead a the main victim. It makes the whole case into a weird mess when 95% of the most extreme abuse and the worst crime is committed against a fictional character. Makes it seem like there is no case in real life when in reality there was one. Here Hollywood changes things a bit as they are going against the so-called "god of Hollywood" and of course have to pull punches. A producer who controlled much of Hollywood and who men and women in the industry adored to no end. Harvey Weinstein's very strong political background is ignored here. The Hillary connection and top rank in the Democratic party sphere is not even mentioned. Which makes the story weird as we don't understand why he was protected for this many years. In real life he basically was Hollywood ideology itself for decades and therefore protected. But the movie fully ignores his political power and instead focused on 2 female journalists at NYT.

    The movie starts out with se*ual abuse accusations against Trump. Then presents the Bill O'Reilly Fox News case. While Harvey Weinstein is the only accused man not really defined politically at any point. He's just "a powerful man". It does feel like only half the story is told here. In reality the guy controlled actresses in Hollywood. They feared and respected him and did everything he asked then kept quiet to keep their careers intact. It's not made clear what he actually did in most abuse cases as the movie ignores most details. They bring up a lot of se*ual harassment cases in the movie, but seldom anything violent or forceful. The movie unfortunately ignores any clear points about what he did or who he was. He's just this powerful guy with seemingly no political or ideological standpoint and no grand power.

    Also, in this movie the women knew who he was and what he did and still went into his hotel room to advance their careers and to not rock the boat. The movie presents all women as blameless victims who were surpriced by him and just froze and let things happen. This does make it feel unrealistic at many times as you can't just show nearly all women doing exactly the same thing in the same situation. Surely something else happened too? The movie never explores any of this deeper. Stuff just happened and they all signed NDAs so they refuse to speak up as they may get sued for it. Meanwhile the lawyers at Miramax didn't quite know the scope of the issue either as many women recanted their stories right away. Similarly there were no tight police cases for the same reason. All women signed NDAs and recanted. I'm not sure why the movie never tries to expand on the story or show more varied reactions to his advances. This makes it look like all Hollywood women think exactly the same way which is a shame. Of course no woman said anything to the media in real life either, but that doesn't really make the movie feel more real anyhow.

    The movie is a tad slow for sure. I clicked out the fullscreen like 20 times as many scenes were way too slow and melodramatic. All the scenes with the kids for example are extremely slow and dry for some reason. And most scenes with women have them crying and sobbing even when the scenes are not about the abuse. It's just a very melodramatic movie where everything has slow classical music and the scenes look grey and drab. No colors, no smiles, no energy. Everything is subdued. It's too much, but the movie never becomes dull. We always know what the goal is. The article they are writing is the main goal and I was constantly trying to see how it would develop. The story is tried and true. But there are better journalism movies out there. Like Shock and Awe (2017) that did a similar thing yet all the personal scenes felt very real and energetic. Here everything is so drab it's clearly fake and forced. I did like the acting by the 2 female journalists and then the Black boss. So overall it's a good movie. I would also recommend Spotlight (2015) over this movie. The journalism detective work in that movie is spectacular. All the President's Men (1976) is of course nearly perfect. But if you like real life history movies this is frankly very much worth a watch. You will just learn nothing about Weinstein from this.

    Frankly, despite the many small issues and the weirdly non-political aspect of the story the movie was quite fun and engaging.
  • 851222 - 31 December 2022
    Raw and true
    Greetings from Lithuania.

    "She Said" (2022) is a very true story about journalists which wrote the infamous article about Harvey Weinstein, which eventually lead to many changes for a good. This movie plays like a documentary - there is no big character development, nor any conventional plot lines. Its about the even and how one got made.

    Directing of this movie was very solid - at running time 2 hours i was involved into this story even knowing the outcome very well as the one who actually read the article back in the day. Acting was on spot.

    Overall, "She Said" is a true and raw account of events. Its not glamorized nor anything similar - this film plays like a documentary and its a very good one in doing that.
  • christinachapman-57564 - 21 December 2022
    Well done to all of the creative team...
    And esp the dynamic duo and NY Times et al that brought these devastating stories to life Worth noting that scrawl at the end didn't mention the fact the Twohey and Kantor won the Pulitzer Prize They truly instigated change- The women's lives that were changed for the worse I hope can heal knowing that bringing their pain into the light has hopefully brought justice to some of the monstrous bullies that sadly exist in every workplace, in every corner of the world This film captures every single moment of frustration and fear that the deafening silence and injustice would continue just because of the patriarchal machine that has protects it's own.

    So thank you to the creative team of this film, the actors, the writer, editor-every creative member - it is very apparent this film was a labor of love and bringing truth to light Not that awards really matter anymore, but this film deserves to sweep em allllll... Well done.
  • gangeshgnair - 17 December 2022
    Loved it
    I am really surprised that they used all the real names in the movie. I am sure there would have been many legal permissions they had to take before making this movie. They had stayed very true to the story. The making is very raw and realistic. Zoe kazan and carey mulligan gave such amazing performance. Even though the movie mostly focuses on the journalism procedures of covering the story, it never feels bored or slow paced. We are emotionaly connected with the characters and want them to win. The cinematography is just superb. The movie also gives a very important social message on issues women face in their workplace and on how the system provides loopholes to abusers to stay protected.

    A very nice and engaging movie, really loved it.
  • mossgrymk - 11 December 2022
    she said
    What a monumentally frustrating film! You have the timely, important, and emotionally gut wrenching subject of sexual abuse of women by powerful men in the workplace and the film makers, director Maria Schrader and scenarist Rebecca Lenkiewicz, spend two hours and ten minutes awkwardly trying to fit it into the jammed slot of the crusading journalist sub genre instead of the workplace drama category where it belongs.. The result, as could have been foretold, is a slow, faintly dull movie where we know as much or more about the NY Times reporters, Megan Twohey and Jody Kantor, as we do about the victims of Harvey Weinstein's cruelty and lust for power over his female employees. As a result the film becomes too much of an infomercial for the NY Times, much like its precursor, "All The President's Men", was an ad for the Washington Post, with lots of establishing shots of the Gray Lady's headquarters as well as the obvious and clumsy visual contrast, also lifted from "Men", of the clean well lighted office space of the newspaper versus Miramax's moral darkness.

    There are many extended moments when this film comes alive. These center on interviews with Weinstein's victims, all of whom are women except for two quite haunting scenes at a cavernous, downtown restaurant with the Deep Throat of this film, Miramax's chief accountant, Irwin Reiter, well played by Zach Grenier, of "Deadwood" and "Zodiac" fame. It is only in these interviews that the abused are allowed to take center stage and recount, in harrowing detail, the emotional and physical toll working for their ex boss has taken on them. As the two main interviewees Jennifer Ehle and Samantha Morton give performances that start at riveting and end at brilliant. Both should (and one definitely will, in my opinion), garner Oscar nominations for supporting actor.

    But then, following each interview, we return to our Two Intrepid, Spunky Reporters with their adoring husbands, wise children, and problems (like postpartum depression) that magically disappear as they crusade for truth and you can almost hear the hissing, not of the audience but rather the air being let out of the dramatic balloon. And, despite the very annoying, portentious score, one never feels that Ms. Twohey or Ms. Kantor are in the slightest danger. While the women who are in danger are slighted. Give it a B minus.

    PS...Memo to Ms. Lenkiewicz: When you have an actor of Patricia Clarkson's skills you really ought to give her a character to play.
  • pixrox1 - 7 December 2022
    That 1950 picture about the giant bunny . . .
    . . . kind of spoiled the prospects for future films titled HARVEY. When it came time to produce a biographical movie about the murdered San Francisco councilman, for instance, it was titled MILK instead of the equally applicable HARVEY. Even derivations including the name HARVEY have been few and far between since the mid-1900's. SHE SAID, at the very least, should logically be subtitled as THE HARVEY W-E-I-N-S-T-E-I-N STORY. Alternatively, as it features a team of a taller and shorter big city newspaper reporters, ALL THE PRODUCER'S WOMEN would pay homage to a past Best Picture, and perhaps elicit a haul of coveted gelded statuettes in its own right next spring. At least the casting here is as spot on as in SPOTLIGHT, especially in the case of the actress playing Ms. Judd. A real dead ringer, that one.
  • calimadamex - 5 December 2022
    I was impressed
    The two leading actors did a fantastic job. It was hard for me to find anything wrong with this film. I could not believe how the two hours went so quickly for me.

    At one point the frustration for Megan Twohey bubbles over and that scene brought a few tears.

    It's important for people to see and understand how prevalent the intimidation and bullying is in the workplace. I have had my own challenges, but nothing like some others. I'm sure it could be difficult to watch if it stirs up unfortunate memories.

    I could understand it not being for everyone, but I truly hope that many take the time for it.

    Brava to the screenwriting, the direction, and the acting! Pretty sure awards/nominations are coming.
  • nicolasroop - 30 November 2022
    A solid investigative reporter drama
    While it doesn't quite hit the same heights that Spotlight did, it does dish out enough information about the Harvey Winstein case to warrant a watch. The pace may be slow but it's never without a moment of information. On that front the movie succeeds greatly. He was a disgusting man who needed to be exposed and I'm happy for The New York Times committed the time and dedication to get him exposed. The direction of the film is superb, the writing is riviting, and the acting is top tier. Especially from Carey Mulligan, she briliantly portrays her character in a way that feels genuinely vulnerable, yet strong. Overall, I recommend this if you like investigative content, as well as drama lovers. 4 articles out of 5.