Peter Bart: ‘She Said’ Team Should Have Investigated Oscar-Winning ‘Spotlight’ Writer

Tom McCarthy is a very clever writer who has managed to attract audiences in a difficult genre – thrillers about newspapers. He won an original screenplay Oscar for it headlightShot in 2015, was a compelling film about how the Boston atmosphere revealing a cover with a deceased priest. His new ABC series Alaska daily focuses on a hot New York journalist (Hilary Swank) who is banished from covering crime in Anchorage.

McCarthy cleverly avoids a major pitfall of the genre: journalists are not star material (not even Woodward and Bernstein). Much of their work is swallowed up by cumbersome procedures.

These problems are clearly visible in the new film she said, is struggling to find an audience. Universal was brave in funding a film that provides the most accurate and factually honest account of a newspaper investigation of a mistake. Also the ones Tom McCarthy needs most.

she said tells the story of the tireless efforts of two reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (played by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan), to bring down Harvey Weinstein for his systematic pattern of sexual abuse.

Their long and expensive mission was supported by The New York Times – a notable connection that helped fuel the #MeToo movement.

RELATED: ‘She Said’ Review: NYT Duo’s Takedown of Harvey Weinstein and Decades of Hollywood Abuse Makes Heavy Reading

Most of the film’s reviews range from positive to ecstatic, reflecting a stance on both the movement and the film. same The timesThe reviewer himself confirms: “Fans of All the president’s men Maybe you want something brighter – hints of conspiracy or even shady parking garages.

In reality, she said it not only lacks danger, a key element of the drama, but also a heavy one. Weinstein is not present in the film (the audience briefly sees his back and hears his voice). At a screening, two young moviegoers asked me, “Who is this man and why did he inspire such fear?”

I understand the reasoning behind the decision: the perpetrator is in prison for life and the filmmakers (Maria Schrader directed the film) did not want to acknowledge his presence. At the same time, generations of moviegoers could puzzle over his menace.

Today, no one wants to admit that they know him at all, for fear of accusations of complicity. Even Quentin Tarantino, who among other things shot nine films with him pulp fictionHe goes to great lengths to avoid his name. “I should have known,” he explains.

RELATED: Quentin Tarantino’s Filmmaking Career: From ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ to ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ and More

But is it possible to make a thriller without a heavy, no matter how disturbing, presence?

And it was disturbing. At his peak, Weinstein lived in a perverse fever dream: the great and famous courted him, fantastic festivals celebrated him, beautiful people surrounded him.

But his thirst for power was accompanied by a thirst for danger: his big films were always on the verge of collapse. Every major relationship, like his lavish deal with Disney, seemed on the brink of disaster—usually due to reckless overspending. Always surrounded by sexy people, sex seemed to be about danger, not play.

she said cautiously, even fumblingly, he follows Weinstein’s self-destruction – and destruction of others – as he examines both unwitting victims and the huddled bystanders. Weinstein carefully hid the secrets of his unscrupulous acts and crimes.

Tom McCarthy might one day decide to make a thriller about a Weinstein-esque nightmare character. On the other hand, he can choose to attribute himself to the dark past. One we all hope we never experience again.