Bombshell Review

Synopsis

Fox News Anchors Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) tell their stories about the decline and fall of Roger Ailes (John Lithgow).

Thoughts

I try to stay away from political films or anything that feels like propaganda. Political films or any other kind of propaganda always put the message before the medium, which makes for a bad story, whether it’s uninspired Christian rock music or some slapped together documentary. Thankfully, Bombshell gives us a deeper look at power and politics without being hamfisted.

The film begins with breaking the fourth wall in a strange and contrived way. Megyn Kelly tells us all about how Fox News works and about the connection between political power and the newsroom to almost obsessive detail. This kind of framework was a bit jarring although it levels out as we get to learn more about our characters in the film.

The acting in this film is authentic, and you can tell the cast did their homework. Charlize Theron is spot on in looks and voice as Megyn Kelly as well as Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson. Margot Robbie’s character Kayla is ficticious but offers some of the film’s emotional high points. However, I did not like that she was there. If this was supposed to be a tell all kind of film, why add someone and some events that didn’t happen? She is essentially used as a mouthpiece for the message that the filmmakers wanted to tell, for better or worse.

Ultimately, this story is about how Fox News work(ed)s under Roger Ailes in the lead up to the 2016 election. It tells a compelling tale about how power dynamics of the biggest cable news network operate and gives us an insight in how high-profile harassment cases can be lost in a sea of questions, accusations, and deflection. By the end we see how complex and messy these cases can be, without seeming all that different from how other workplaces operate. It fills you with dread, hope, and a salient understanding of the filthy corporate world that powerful men create and exploit.

Rating

• 4 Stars = Excellent
• 3 1/2 Stars = Great
• 3 Stars = Good
• 2 1/2 Stars = Decent or Fair
• 2 Stars = OK
• <2 Stars = Bad

With some qualms about style, the existence, not the execution, of Margot Robbie’s fictional character, and story structure, this film pulls you into a world that you may not know a lot about. It highlights the distress of accusing one’s superiors of terrible acts while showing that there is hope that justice will be served.

This film is very realistic in how some of the characters don’t see Ailes as a monster, although he certainly earned that. Other characters praise him for what he has done for their work. They mention his off-screen loyalty and generosity and also his darkest side through retellings by Margot Robbie’s Kayla Pospisil. No matter what he has done for ambitious journalists, he still has to face the consequences for what he has done, which we see in brutally slow detail.

The newsroom, like many other workplaces, is a complicated bureaucracy that has its bad bosses with too much power and underlings who are exploited. It doesn’t seem too far off from other cases that happen around the country, I imagine. This film is designed to help audiences learn and reflect on these issues without hitting them over the head and giving us hope that corruption can be defeated and that an issue that has been swept under the rug may finally be taken seriously. Three stars.