“She Said”: Is the #MeToo movement dead?

“This is bigger than Weinstein. This is about the system protecting abusers.” 

This soundbite taken in a conversation between former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein’s ex-personal assistant Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton) and journalist Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) not only expressed what the #MeToo movement revealed about sexual misconduct in the workplace but illustrated what the 2022 film “She Said” would center on: the diligent, careful, real-life process of unraveling the thick layers of that system. 

The film follows New York Times journalists Kantor and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) as they go phone-call to phone-call, door-to-door from London to Silicon Valley trying to get in contact with women who had faced sexual abuse from Weinstein going backtwo decades ago. The difficulty is in getting them to talk. The term “off the record”—repeated countless times throughout the film—meant that even if Kantor or Twohey got a source who was willing to share their story, they couldn’t publish it without their permission. Going “on the record” would mean putting themselves on the line—getting shamed, losing job opportunities, or having their traumatic experience labeled as a tabloid sex scandal. The terror outweighed the uncertainty of finding accountability for those in seats of power. “She Said” takes the audience through intimate emotional scenes and a tight bureaucracy of nondisclosure agreements and settlements until Kantor and Twohey are able to weave themselves around to write the story, published in 2017, that would shock the world and spur a social movement. 

Although the film sets itself up for a flashy drama where Hollywood self-congratulates itself on reaching peak feminism, the focus on investigative journalism creates more uncertainty, showing slow dialogue-filled scenes where the tension is more heartbreaking than exciting. From when actress Rose Mgowan (Keilly Mcgowan) and Lauren Madden (Jennifer Ehle) speak about their encounters with Weinstein, to when Kantor’s young daughter asks about rape, the work of investigative journalism becomes humanized rather than heroic. Even when Twohey meets Weinstein, the “villain” of the film, the audience never even sees his face. Instead, the focus of the scene slowly edges towards Twohey, staring at him with a mix of sadness and disgust. The catharsis of seeing Weinstein sent to jail in some dramatic scene is not present in the film. 

Perhaps it’s this that brought the film’s downfall at the box office bringing in a measly $2.25 million on opening weekend. The public goes to the movies to escape reality or to go to a more stylized version of it. Yet the film described the real-life horrors of Weinstein without capitalizing on grotesque scenes of sexual harm. It focused on the aftermath, the messy process of uncovering a system of abuse. 

Moreover, it’s been five years since the article was published, details of the investigation were released, and the #MeToo movement began. How much more did people want to know? 

Especially with recent cases such as the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, following Heard’s accusation that she faced sexual violence from Depp, the term “she said” turns to its opponent “he said.” It was his (Depp’s) word against hers (Heard’s) and vice versa. Our media’s culture, once adapted to shout “believe all women,” came to a place where TikToks and Twitch live streams were created to make fun of Heard’s face, the way she spoke in court, analyzing and scrutinizing her every move, while Depp was made a saint. The idea of victim versus perpetrator became a false binary. The truth is that everyone is capable of receiving and causing harm. No one can be the “perfect victim.” The fate of the #MeToo Movement is therefore walking a thin tightrope. What will this recently intensified public scrutiny mean for victims of sexual abuse?

The last scene of “She Said” shows Kantor and Twohey huddled around their computer ready to click “publish” on the news story that would spark the #MeToo Movement. For many today, however, the direction #MeToo will take remains uncertain. From social movements, to beauty standards, to U.S. politics that brought us from Obama to Trump, our culture is constantly on a pendulum swinging back and forth. Progress is not linear. The box office’s reaction to “She Said” reveals that the pendulum is beginning to make that shift.