The Assistant: w/ Sheila Gregoire on Toxic Workplaces and How They (Don’t) Manage

Sheila Gregoire: Bare Marriage Podcast // Bare Marriage Blog // Author Page

Sheila Gregoire of the Bare Marriage podcast joins Melvin to discuss The Assistant, a hidden gem of pure psychological drama! It’s depiction of modern office work in the film industry is understated, dour, and timely, as it tackles a combination of workplace inequality, systematic issues, and the thin line between the complacent and the complicit.

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 21-minutes discussing a report finding that bait, controversy, and enragement posting bolstered lucrative engagement on Threads (similar to other social media), and how this negatively impacts the platform, but also demands we utilize them in a healthier way. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• The Assistant is a bleak depiction of not only workplace abuse but also of human relationships.
• Although uneventful, the film has perpetual unease and eeriness.
• Sheila observed how the film depicts food, and the two discuss its non-nutritious showcase of a biological workplace distraction.
• Medication plays a significant role in the setting of the film, making overt allusions to the film’s boss as a caricature of Harvey Weinstein.
• Exploitation, abuse, and unethical practices in a company are ultimately anti-capitalist, even if the line is going up and to the right.
• Pondering if abusive hierarchical structures are more common and dangerous in the church than in the workplace.
• Sheila, “Often we feel like when we are in these situations that we are powerless… but quite often we do.”
• Is Jane complicit?

Recommendations:

• For Our Daughters (2024) (Short Film)
• TÁR (2022) (Movie)
• Bombshell (2018) (Movie)

The Assistant is Rated R for some language. It features Julia Garner, Noah Robbins, Jonny Orsini, Matthew Macfadyen, Alexander Chaplin, and Tony Torn. Directed by Kitty Green. The Assistant is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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