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She Said opens in Ireland in 1992. A young woman walking alone one afternoon serendipitously happens upon a movie shoot for what looks like an 18th-century period piece. Shortly afterward, she lands a job among the crew — something that, for her, is like catching a dream in her hands. Then the film abruptly cuts to that same woman running down a city street in hysterics. For those in the audience hip to what She Said is about — it’s a dramatization of the New York Times investigation into movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s serial sexual misconduct and the enablers helping prop it up — we can infer what might have transpired between the onset of the dream and the shattering nightmare to follow. That woman, Laura Madden, will have to live alone with the truth of what happened to her for nearly three decades. Like the 2017 article and a subsequent 2019 book, much of She Said’s power lies in how it gives her, along with the many other women also preyed on by Weinstein, the floor and an open ear after years of hopeless certainty she’d never get either.

She Said is at its strongest in scenes where Madden and other women recount their experiences with Weinstein and his production company, Miramax. Beyond their testimonials being powerfully performed by actresses like Jennifer Ehle, Angela Yeoh, Ashley Judd (playing herself), and especially Samantha Morton, director Maria Schrader frames them with the kind of sensitivity and gravity that can make you feel like you’re hearing these stories anew. 

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