…as the immortal Leslie Knopes notes. I’ll admit that I’ve stayed away from this because I don’t need more evidence that while notallmen, white men sure do a hell of a lot of damage. However, I’m trying really hard to cultivate outside interests this year, so what the hey.
Farrow skillfully balances the line of injecting enough of his personality to be engaging without overtaking the narrative. He appears to be very aware of his celebrity and it’s easy to see how he was able to get people in the movie business to talk to him. His original reporting in The New Yorker, along with Megan Twomey and Jodi Cantor’s investigative reporting in the New York Times, are what I associate with the beginning of the MeToo movement, and it’s fascinating to see how opposed NBC was to the story. Farrow documents the myriad ways in which organizations can hide information, even one that is ostensibly dedicated to telling the truth. All that’s needed is a group who is willing to keep pushing the decision off so that no one can say who actually pulled the trigger.
I wasn’t actually aware of the intelligence gathering aspect of the story, and it’s genuinely terrifying to know to what lengths private agents are able to go on behalf of people with money. However, Farrow’s constant centering of the story on the bravery of all the people who spoke up keeps this from being too grim. In this current reality of people lying with impunity, it’s reassuring to see that sometimes the truth wins out.
“Men’s rights is nothing!”
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow