The Assistant

It's impressive how this movie is so low key and just shows what is likely a very ordinary day for the protagonist, yet still remains interesting and unnerving to watch. Entertaining might not be the best word to describe it, but neither is boring. It maintains a sense of quiet discomfort throughout, and the apathy of a toxic workplace and predatory behaviour of the higher-ups is explored extremely well with this stripped down, non-heightened approach.

I was glad I knew it was subdued and grounded before going in, as if I'd expected more, I may have spent all 80-something minutes of its runtime waiting for the "plot" to start happening.

Despite it being quiet and low key, it's also definitely not subtle. It's pretty clear what (or arguably even who) the movie is about, and I guess the very dry, quiet presentation with the strong and far from subdued intentions of the film did make for an odd but usually interesting contrast.

Also worth mentioning is that Julia Garner was great in the lead role, but the rest of the cast are mostly just decent.