How to watch The Assistant online: stream the movie from anywhere today

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Julia Garner shines in this slow-burn workplace drama

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(Image credit: Bleecker Street)

Grounded by a sterling performance from Primetime Emmy Award winner Julia Garner, The Assistant might be described as Nine to Five directed by Ken Loach. Focused, controlled, and claustrophobic, this drama quietly seethes with #MeToo resonances. Read on, and we’ll let you know how to watch The Assistant online from anywhere.

The Assistant cheat sheet

Released: January 21 2020

Director: Kitty Green

Cast: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Jon Orsini

Run time: 1 hr 27 mins

Rating: R

The Assistant follows Jane (Garner) throughout the course of one exacting day as a junior assistant at a film production company in New York. She’s the first one in and the last one out, stoically juggling a multitude of menial tasks in an alienating environment. An atmosphere of hushed silence prevails: clients and colleagues conduct themselves with somber indifference, while Jane’s boss – whose muffled menace we only hear on the phone – is using his position to sexually manipulate any attractive talent.

Directed, written, and edited by Kitty Green, on the surface it’s a film without a narrative, detailing the minutiae of Jane’s workday in a way that’s almost avant-garde. The cinematography is crisp, the color palette is sterile, and the framing of each shot oppressively ordered. We keep waiting for something to disrupt the stasis, but it doesn’t. What’s communicated instead is how power operates most effectively when it’s hidden, helping to facilitate a culture of complicity. In The Assistant, Jane’s antagonist is an unseen, shadowy figure - not unlike the villain in 2020’s The Invisible Man.

Also starring Matthew MacFadyen, Jon Orsini, and Patrick Wilson, The Assistant is charged with contemporary relevance, while also offering a hugely sympathetic turn from Julia Garner as Jane. If your indie senses are tingling now, read on as we detail how to watch The Assistant online from anywhere.

How to watch The Assistant from outside your home country

If you find yourself abroad on business or taking a belated vacation and want to watch The Assistant, it’s still possible to rent it from your preferred platform, no matter where in the world you find yourself.

Say you're in a country where it’s not available to stream online. Downloading a VPN will allow you to connect to your usual service and access its roster of on-demand films and TV shows. By changing your IP address, you can effortlessly view content that would otherwise be regionally restricted.

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While there are hundreds of VPNs to choose from, we always recommend ExpressVPN. As well as being fast, simple, and easy to install, it's compatible with a plethora of devices - Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS and Android to name just a few.

Plus,  ExpressVPN's flexible 30-day money back guarantee lets you trial the software first. Even better, an annual plan can be purchased at a 49% discount with 3 months extra FREE – a brilliant offer on an essential bit of kit.

Once installed, select the location of your home country and simply click connect. You can then watch The Assistant online from pretty much anywhere. 

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watch the assistant online

How to watch The Assistant online for FREE in the US

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This indie gem is currently available to rent or buy through a variety of VoD services - but most notably, it's now also available on Hulu.

Hulu is the first streaming service to offer The Assistant at no additional charge and, available from just $5.99 a month, is the best value way to watch the film when you consider all the additional content you get.

Plus, Hulu offers a FREE 30-day trial, meaning you can effectively watch The Assistant for free - though we reckon you'll be tempted to stay once you see everything that's on offer. 

For the ultimate value, though, a combined Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN+ bundle costs just $12.99 gets you even more great stuff to watch.

Of the rental and buying options, Vudu is one of the cheapest, with The Assistant costing $2.99 to rent in either SD or HDX (super HD) format. If you plan on repeat viewings though, it would be cheaper to spend $9.99 and have it forever. 

Otherwise, you can rent the movie from Amazon Video, Flix Fling, YouTube, and Fandango Now for $5.99. Their rental fees are the same but digitally downloading the film varies in cost between platforms.

As previously mentioned, if you’re temporarily out of the country and want to connect back to your favorite US streaming site just you would at home, it’s pretty straightforward: just download a VPN like ExpressVPN.

how to watch the assistant

How to watch The Assistant online in Canada

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Canadians have a few options when it comes to streaming The Assistant. Both Apple iTunes and Flix Fling let you watch the movie for CND$5.99 (Flix Fling has its own library of content too: thousands of films on-demand at a monthly CND$7.99 fee, if you’re interested). Or save a dollar by renting the film through Google Play or YouTube and pay CND$4.99.

Completists and independent film fans considering buying the film, it’s a solid CND$9.99 through most platforms.

Remember, if you’ve found yourself escaping abroad or leaving the True North for work purposes, you can use a VPN to connect to regionally restricted websites from wherever you are.

watch the assistant online uk

How to watch The Assistant online in the UK

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Unless our eyes are deceiving us, Amazon Prime Video is basically giving the film away at only £0.99 to rent. That makes it easily the cheapest way to watch The Assistant in the UK, though there are other options.

Mubi offers a rarefied selection of high-brow movies for the discerning cinephile, and The Assistant has made the cut. Subscribers to Mubi can rent the film for a slightly cheaper £4.49, while non-members can make a one-off purchase for £5.49. Reiterating just how critically lauded this film is, it’s also available through BFI Player for a similar £4.50.

Other more mainstream options include Google Play and YouTube letting you stream the film for under £4 each.

Brits outside of their home country can always use a VPN to connect to the streaming platforms and content they're already paying for back home. It all starts with downloading a VPN like ExpressVPN, after which just follow the instructions above.

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How to watch The Assistant online in Australia

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Proving that the issues raised in The Assistant are universal, Australians can also enjoy the American drama.

 There’s not much to tell though: you can purchase it through Google Play, Microsoft Store, or YouTube for the identical amount of AUS$6.99 to rent, or AUS$17.99 to download, and in HD quality too.

If you’re fortunate enough to be taking a vacation or visiting family abroad, and want to access one of the above services, again, check out a VPN for a hassle-free way of connecting to local content back home.

Daniel Pateman
Daniel Pateman

Daniel Pateman is a freelance writer, producing articles across the cultural spectrum for magazines like Aesthetica, Photomonitor, The Brooklyn Rail and This is Tomorrow. He also provides text-writing services to individual curators and artists worldwide, and has had work published internationally. His favourite film genre is horror (bring on Scream 5!) and he never tires of listening to Absolute 80s on the radio.