Rating: R | Runtime: 129 minutes
Release Date: November 18th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Maria Schrader
Writer(s): Rebecca Lenkiewicz / Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey (book) / Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey & Rebecca Corbett (New York Times investigation)

It was like he took my voice that day. Just when I was about to start finding it.

I want to say it’s surprising that there hasn’t been as much of an Oscar push for She Said this year as there was for Best Picture winner Spotlight in 2015, but it’s not. The conversation surrounding sexual misconduct and rape is still one that’s constantly being shrugged off, labeled as a “product of its time,” or pivoted into another example of victim-blaming. It will therefore be interesting to see whether The Academy ignores the silence and watches anyway because I do believe it has legs to garner a handful of nominations.

The two easiest names to highlight are director Maria Schrader (the whole is just as riveting as Tom McCarthy’s film while juggling a ton of moving pieces) and actor Carey Mulligan, who is campaigning as “supporting” (a shrewd move putting the stronger performance in a better position to win considering she and Zoe Kazan are really co-leads). Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s script has a shot, but I do believe it’s a bit too heavy-handed in parts—a lot of “telling” rather than “showing” in ways that feel redundant—to really break through.

This is a stirring document about an important subject that details the arduous journey from a random call with Rose McGowen to a bombshell news report that ignited a firestorm (and ultimately put Harvey Weinstein behind bars). The ways Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey had to carefully wield the off-the-record facts they accrued as a means to turn more people onto their side with corroborating details and damning evidence is a testament to their ingenuity and professionalism. Because there are a lot of closed doors here. A lot of dial tones. Get that first person to talk, though, and that knowledge helps the next know they aren’t alone.

Special notice for Jennifer Ehle and Andre Braugher. Their roles are very small, but crucial pieces to the puzzle. And it’s also inspiring to see Ashley Judd play herself (the first victim of Harvey’s to agree to go on-the-record) and Samantha Morton play Zelda Perkins (she was blocked from being cast in Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm by Harvey’s brother Bob Weinstein, the result being Lena Headey’s casting and Gilliam’s own reported emotional abuse towards the latter as a result of being overruled). It’s truth and action in motion.

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(from left) Matt Purdy (Frank Wood), Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson), Rory Tolan (Davram Stiefler) and Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) in She Said, directed by Maria Schrader. Copyright © 2022 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.