There’s a phrase that involves thoughts in terms of American journalist, creator, and recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll: irrepressible. She’s not simply somebody you’ll be able to’t maintain down, however somebody you’ll be able to’t maintain again.
Open and brassy and sincere and enjoyable, she’s the form of individual you’d belief to share horror tales over drinks: not solely she’s going to discover comedy in your darkest fears, however she’ll additionally present actionable recommendation. As a journalist, Carroll is the individual to ship into weirdly particular cultural trenches, rising triumphant with tales about every part from dwelling in each an precise frat home and the houses of a lot of her ex-boyfriends (and their present companions) to Hunter S. Thompson’s legacy and winky jokes about Ernest Hemingway.
She’s gonzo and she’s nice, and Ivy Meeropol’s documentary “Ask E. Jean” makes clear how hard-won all of it was, how sophisticated, and the way it virtually held Carroll again.
The movie opens with Carroll’s landmark 2019 defamation lawsuit towards Donald Trump, sparked by a New York journal article through which she asserted that the then-real property magnate sexually assaulted her within the mid-’90s. What adopted was extremely complicated and arduous, legally and personally, and Meeropol does a tremendous job of preserving that chapter’s many threads in an simply understood format. (Of observe: Trump was discovered responsible for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered to pay Carroll practically $90 million in damages. He has but to pay a dime.)
Largely, the filmmaker retains a watch on what was, for Carroll, a very powerful ingredient. After she went public along with her story, and printed a e-book on the identical subject, in early 2019, Trump referred to as her a liar on each platform possible, from interviews to his personal “Fact Social.” For Carroll, whose life and profession centered on her credibility as each an individual and a reporter, this was a bridge too far. This what lastly pushed her to do one thing that endlessly altered her life.
Whereas the movie’s opening is critical and upsetting, Meeropol opts to shortly shift gears. She takes us again practically three many years, to Carroll’s debut into the New York Metropolis media world. We’re greeted by funky footage of the glowing metropolis, pictures of her extremely high-energy TV present “Ask E. Jean,” and a basic dunking into Carroll’s great model of “no-nonsense” (Oprah’s personal phrases!) recommendation and journalism. The attendant whiplash is critical as an introduction to Carroll, however the fixed switching between Carroll “now” and “then” begins to grate.
Meeropol makes use of this looping timeline to inform Carroll’s story. Take into account Carroll’s wrenching depositions, then zing again to her 1964 look on “To Inform the Fact.” Take a look at Carroll explaining how her Elle recommendation column was the stuff of lifelong desires, then get pleasure from a section about her childhood fascination with Pricey Abby and the like. Interested in her cheery character, nonetheless so plentiful, even now, even after every part? It’s time for footage chronicling her teen years as an precise cheerleader.
Whereas these reflections supply some helpful context to Carroll, this circuitous plotting is distracting. At any age, at any time, E. Jean Carroll is inherently compelling.
Clocking in at simply 91 minutes, Meeropol successfully makes use of a wide selection of footage, analysis, speaking head interviews, and extra to inform the story. The kaleidoscopic assortment of every part from intimate interviews (Carroll and her buddies on the Waverly Inn, actually consuming a “lady dinner” of fries, Caesar salads, and martinis) and completely gobsmacking archival footage (Carroll’s videotaped depositions from her 2019 and 2022 lawsuits) is informative and wealthy, permitting us to get to know Carroll as we additionally study the worst bits of her life story.
What’s most revelatory, and obligatory, about “Ask E. Jean” proves to be what’s most painful. It’s important that Meeropol current Carroll in her full irrepressible glory. We see how vital the reality is to Carroll and the way it’s one thing she’s constructed her life on and really believes in defending. Within the course of, the documentarian additionally builds out the movie’s underlying reality. How may somebody like E. Jean Carroll, somebody so open and sincere, somebody who reveled in telling it straight, who believed within the energy and magic of ladies, not solely be a sufferer of a horrific act however then keep quiet about it for thus lengthy?
That’s the important thing to Carroll’s life, and to the lifetime of many different victims of sexual assault, defamation, and different gender-based violence. Not simply, how did this occur? However, as is usually lobbed at victims, how did you permit this to occur? As we get to know Carroll, we see how keenly these questions nonetheless influence and confound even her.
Even Carroll wasn’t capable of confront a few of her greatest pains and issues. A sequence from the “Ask E. Jean” present, through which she interviews a rape sufferer and comes painfully near disclosing what the duo have in widespread, will stick to viewers.
She tells us repeatedly she feared that another person would inform her Trump story, and get it unsuitable. Her can-do angle was overwhelmed by what occurred to her. Her rabble-rousing, rah-rah sense of sisterhood and lady energy was for others; for her, it was fully inacessible. And that’s not all.
These contradictions are what make “Ask E. Jean” actually spark. Carroll might have made her bones as somebody with prepared solutions and an irrepressible spirit, however Meeropol’s movie is finest when its topic lastly realizes even the most effective recommendation solely applies within the second, in sure locations, for sure individuals. Dwelling within the after of these questions? That’s far more vital.
Grade: B
“Ask E. Jean” premiered on the 2025 Telluride Movie Competition. It’s at the moment in search of U.S. distribution.
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