Monotony takes on a momentum that is mesmerising in Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT, a spare, precise and acerbic look at the gender divide in the workplace.

Set in a sterile, stark, artificially lit office, THE ASSISTANT is a day in the life chronicle of Jane, an assistant in a company within the film industry, whose workday is filled with filing, photocopying and phone calls, fixing appointments and fielding enquiries. She is also expected to clean the kitchen, meeting rooms and her boss’ casting couch.

The minutia of misogyny set in a film production office, THE ASSISTANT is a nuanced study of female servitude that continues to be practised even in these post Me Too era days and of the micro aggression and misconduct that persists. It appears to be coded in the system and architecture of the work place, the bricks of bullying, the mortar of the menial, an edifice of discrimination and inequality.

THE ASSISTANT starkly illustrates all the small aggressions that undermine a woman’s sense of safety, worth and belonging. Julia Garner carries the film as Jane, with a performance simmering with apprehension and anxiety in an environment that undermines her diligence to duty. Aware of her own exploitation, Jane is an acute observer of some of the other females plights within the company.

Her dilemma is in the decision to express these concerns; to remain silent is to be complicit, to raise them could raze her career. Her discussion with the HR manager, a man, is a dramatic high point of the film, a creepily real set piece that will resonate with a vast swathe of the audience.

Australian film maker Kitty Green packs a subtle punch in a ninety minute narrative that is nuanced, supple and subtle and an indictment of both the conscious and unconscious sexism still prevalent in the workplace.

Now available to rent via Foxtel On Demand
Available to Rent On Demand from 10 June via multiple platforms Google Play, iTunes, Fetch TV, Telstra Bigpond, Sony (Playstation Network), Microsoft & Quickflix