“She Said” is a well-made, old-fashioned journalism movie about the New York Times investigation that brought down Harvey Weinstein. Based on the book by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the journalists who broke the story, it brings to light how the Hollywood producer harassed, assaulted and raped various women over the course of decades, and kept it all quiet until the press started pulling on the threads.

In a sense, “She Said” is the obligatory movie that inevitably follows a journalistic coup. By now, these films — “All the President’s Men,”“Spotlight”and now“She Said”— constitute a genre: The reporters are minding their own business. They hear something and start digging, but those involved refuse to talk to them because they’re terrified.

Meanwhile, the sleeping monster they’re trying to bring down has awakened and turned his attention on他们。They know his crimes, but no one will speak on the record, until gradually, the ice starts to crack. The story is published and the truth, once a trickle, becomes a flood.

This is a winning formula, if done right, and “She Said” does it masterfully. It isn’t exciting, because such movies never are. Rather, it is consistently, calmly and compellingly interesting, not the story of a crime but about the process of revealing it. A salacious movie could be made from the same events — just follow Weinstein, show his crimes, then watch him as the walls close in — but such a film would have no integrity.

“She Said” has the seriousness appropriate to a story that, more than anything else, sparked the #MeToo movement.

Harvey Weinstein survivor speaks about seeing her story in new movie ‘She Said’

One aspect that distinguishes “She Said” from all other journalism movies: It’s very much a women’s story. If you were writing fiction, you couldn’t come up with anything more appropriate: A villain, who has been tormenting women for years, is exposed and destroyed — literally put on the path toward a prison sentence — by two working women.

Directed by Maria Schrader and written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the film doesn’t exactly concentrate on Kantor and Twohey’s personal lives, but we certainly find out more about them than we did about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Kantor is a married mother of two, and Twohey starts off the story pregnant and then goes into a depression after the birth of her child. Nothing is easy about working around the clock, especially when you’re not rich and have kids at home.

记者首先联系好莱坞actresses, and while they’re willing to talk, they’re not willing to go on the record, at least not at first. Going in, I wondered if the movie would refer to the actresses by their real names. They do and go even further: Ashley Judd appears as herself in a couple of powerful scenes. With this act of real-life commitment, Judd lifts the whole movie.

Zoe Kazan (as Kantor) and Carey Mulligan (as Twohey) are nicely paired — one short, one tall; one shy and indirect, the other going straight for the kill. They each have strong moments. Andre Braugher also stands out in a supporting role as Times editor Dean Baquet, who doesn’t seem afraid of anything, least of all Harvey Weinstein.

Kazan brings touching emotion to a series of phone conversations, in which she reacts with relief and happiness that people will indeed talk to her. Mulligan, meanwhile, gets to be at the center of a beautifully crafted moment, in which she sits in a small office, getting berated by Weinstein (we only see him from behind) and his lawyers. We expect her to look harried, but a look of perfect grace forms on her face.

The scene captures a moment that can come whether you work in the arts or politics, or the law, or business, or journalism, sports or anything. That rare and lovely moment when the pressure lifts and you realize: “Oh. I’m going to win.”

M“She Said”:Starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. Directed by Maria Schrader. (R. 128 minutes.) In theaters Friday, Nov. 18.