Cinema’s dark side

Hollywood loves nothing more than movies about the magic of Tinseltown: but the eagerly awaited She Said, based on the 2019 book by New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, exposes the film industry’s dark side (in cinemas from 18 November). This is the story that gave rise to the #MeToo movement, and deserves to stand alongside such journalistic thrillers as All the President’s Men and the 2015 Oscar-winning Spotlight.

Written and directed by women (Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Maria Shrader), it stars Carey Mulligan as Twohey and Zoe Kazan as Kantor, alongside Samantha Morton as Harvey Weinstein’s former assistant Zelda Perkins. It charts how the reporters uncovered the extent of the movie mogul’s serial sexual abuse and the ways in which he and his companies, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, sought to keep it secret.

Perkins, who reported her boss’ predatory behaviour in the 1990s, was subject to a non-disclosure agreement that meant she could be bankrupted and even jailed if she told ­anyone. She was not even allowed to keep a copy of the document she signed. Many of Weinstein’s victims feared, rightly, that he would end their careers if they either refused him or spoke out.