The United States of Leland (2004)

The year is 1992. A period film is being shot at an Irish beach. A young woman walking along the beach halts to watch the production with a smile on her face. She approaches closer and we see her interact with a few crew members. A sudden cut to a street in Ireland shows the same woman crying, running down the street, clutching her belongings. Later revealed to be the first woman to speak on the record against the then-famed, now-hated Hollywood producer Mr. Harvey Weinstein (played by Mike Houston), these two scenes of Lola Petticrew as a young Laura Madden introduce us to the world of director Maria Schrader’s latest film She Said.

She Said is a film based on the book of the same name written by New York Times investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning article about Harvey Weinstein’s pattern of misconduct towards women. It stars Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan as the two reporters respectively and Patricia Clarkson as the team’s editor, Rebecca Corbett. The New York Times’ executive director from 2017, Dean Baquet, is played by Andre Braugher and a brilliant Jennifer Ehle appears as the adult Laura Madden. After the emotional opener, She Said takes a bit of a confusing path to arrive at the beginning of the actual story. It depicts Twohey on a phone call with Donald Trump after she’s published a piece about sexual harassment allegations against him. It then cuts to her being jaded by the fact that he is elected anyway. Soon after, we’re seeing her pregnant and giving birth. We don’t really see Jodi in action until around this time, when we see the New York Times employers huddled around a TV, watching Bill O’Reilly being forced out of Fox News for sexual misconduct. Next, we see Dean and Rebecca tell a room full of journalists to look for more stories on workplace sexual harassment.

It’s soon after when Kantor introduces Rebecca to a possible story about Rose McGowan claiming Harvey Weinstein harassed her that the film’s plot really starts developing. Once we get there though, the ball keeps rolling and never slows down till the end credits start rolling. It’s like a “buckle your seatbelts” moment because despite being a dialogue-heavy and minimalist independent film, She Said feels like a thriller. We follow a couple of hardworking and passionate reporters who talk to many scared and scarred women, trying to find a source who is willing to take a public stance against the biggest name in Hollywood. It’s an underdog story at its core, but also one rooted in social reform. Megan and Jodi’s work spearheaded a rebellion of sorts that culminated in the #MeToo movement.  For those who don’t know the full story, the film is even more fun to watch because it takes time to trace the development of the story from a whisper about Harvey to a collective testament of his pattern of behavior.