She Said               4 ½ stars

She Said takes on the subject of sexual abuse and misconduct in Hollywood from a journalistic approach and from an entirely female perspective. This is the true story of the New York Times investigation and take down of one Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Harvey Weinstein. We have all heard the story before, of the decades of assaults and intimidation and coverup payouts that centered around Weinstein and in the end how it led to the Metoo movement throughout the corporate world. In the film we see the efforts of the two Times investigative reporters, Megan Twohy (Carey Mulligan of An Education and Promising Young Woman) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan of The Big Sick and The Plot Against America) as they follow leads, knock on doors and are rebuffed at nearly every turn. Through a series of interviews and flashbacks we get the stories of not only repeated abuse of Hollywood actresses (including Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd) and Mirimax employees, but of the multitude of enablers in the industry that allow the abuse to continue. The formula of the movie is one we have seen before, in All the President’s Men, Spotlight and The Post, only this time the reporting is down exclusively by women who in addition to their jobs have to deal with raising children and fending off creeps in bars. Even though we know the eventual outcome we feel the frustration of the reporters as they hear the stories but can’t persuade the victims to go public out of fear of their families learning what happened and retaliation from Weinstein. It is only after being informed of the payouts by the lawyers and accountants that they learn the true scope of the crimes. For the documentary treatment of the subject, see the 2019 movie Untouchable. It gives a firsthand account from some of the women victims and the exposing of Weinstein’s crimes.