She Said
Year: 2022
Rating: R
Length: 129 minutes / 2.15 hours
After the gripping Best Picture winner Spotlight (2015) brought to light the struggles of journalists to expose systemic sexual abuse in our society, it’s a little sad that the somewhat similar She Said (2022) hasn’t gotten the same amount of attention. And perhaps that’s just highlighting the continuation of the issue at hand: sexual assault rampant throughout the Hollywood film industry. One wonders if this introspective piece would have done better without Spotlight‘s shadow looming over it or the movie industry wanting to continue to silence the voice of these women.
She Said has plenty of gripping moments where women put their entire careers on the line to become named sources to out the deplorable practices of producers like Harvey Weinstein. The trouble is, the whole movie plays out quite similarly to how Spotlight did seven years ago. If you want to see more thrilling investigative journalism that brings to light the abuse of power that continues rampant in this world, this is the movie for you. If you’ve had enough of these exposés that show a problem and only offer a small step toward a solution, then maybe pass on this one.
For what it’s worth, this relatively recent outing of Weinstein (and others) that led to the #metoo movement is more a testament to the bravery of the few who stepped forward to admit something was wrong. It’s difficult to think of a world before people freely spoke up about these abuses, but the cracks in the dam holding back the vile actions of people in power needed to come crumbling down at some point. I’m glad movies like She Said still exist to document these major turning points, even if there’s still plenty to do to remedy the situation.
A #metoo version of Spotlight, I give She Said 4.0 stars out of 5.
