Review: Bombshell
Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 3:00PM 
Bombshell takes a while to show us the crimes of abuse that Roger Ailes committed. But when that moment comes it’s as gross, as unpleasant and as horrifying as we thought it’d be. Instead at the beginning we follow Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) as she is fired from Fox News and decides to sue the network and Ailes for sexual harassment. As that is happening two other narratives begin to formulate. A young producer named Kayla (a composite character played by Margot Robbie) tries to get invited into Ailes’ inner echelon so that she can speed up her rise to a news anchor role. While in another part of the building Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) becomes embroiled in a nationally televised juvenile on air battle with then Candidate Trump. The film - directed by Jay Roach and written by Charles Randolph - starts building a network of misogyny stories within the three narrative threads showing how powerful men completely disregard and exploit women.
Naturally Carlson needs witnesses to help win her case and this is when the three narrative threads come together hinged on Kelly's decision to testify against Ailes or not...
Choosing Kelly as the lead character is a curious choice as Kayla is the one who shoulders the abuse story within the film’s timeframe. Kelly is a bystander and her decision is easily arrived at with no real stakes. The film tries to manufacture some for her but the situation never feels as threatening as the screenplay thinks it is. Her job, her life, her livelihood are not in jeopardy. It's a baffling decision to structure the narrative that way. Theron manages an eerie impersonation, not just the spot on makeup job but a deeper voice that sounds exactly like Kelly’s. However this uncanny transformation is soulless and doesn't help us to understand Kelly. The film shows her racist “Santa is white" debacle but only in the background of a couple of scenes. It punts any real exploration of Kelly’s - and the other women at Fox - support and benefit from the network’s partisan politicking for profit. If that were further examined the film and Theron’s performance would surely have become much more interesting.
Robbie gets the juiciest part and is able to chart a credible performance as Kayla weighs her ambition against the difficult situation she finds herself in. She also gets the ickiest scenes where John Lithgow’s Ailes olges her and persuades her to grant him sexual favors. The scenes are not explicit, but feel very dirty as if the audience - all of us - are complicit as well. That feeling of complicity is the film at its most potent.
Carlson on the other hand is merely there to jumpstart the action, and not written with any nuance or deep characterization so Kidman brings nothing beyond surface level delivery of lines and doesn't try to sound or look anything like Carlson.
There are many famous faces in supporting roles. Look there's Allison Janney. Oh, it's Connie Britton. Here’s Richard Kind as Rudy Giuliani and there’s someone playing Geraldo Rivera. All of it feels cartoonish and skin deep; the acting and what’s written for them to play. Faring best is Alanna Ubach as Janine Pirro. She makes a big impact out of a scant few minutes of screen time with the force with which she delivers her defense of Ailes. It would be funny if it weren't so horrifying.
And therein lies the dilemma of this film. It plays well but with a glib irreverent tone that is completely unsuited to a story of systemic abuse of power and sexual exploitation, not to mention complete avoidance of any nuanced examination of the ramifications of the larger role that Fox and these women played in this country. C
Reader Comments (17)
Nonsense.
Grade: A
I mean, I don't think that Fox News even COULD be played dramatically/subtly while also being honest. Modern American conservatism and live-action prestige filmmaking/tv-making are...probably the wrong match. Imagine an animated movie of Fox News. That could play GANGBUSTERS.
My beloved Imposter, for a minute I thought you were dead. It was a happy thought.
Alanna Ubach! She's come a long way since she was Josie on Beakman's World! Hope y'all can secure an interview with her sometime.
Reading this review with undisguised and invaluable pleasure.
Exactly what I figured would happen when we discussed the trailer months ago:
"I have no desire to see this if all it does it paint these Aryan fembots as #metoo victims without examining their complicity in one of the most insidiously deleterious rightwing propaganda machines to exist."
Some people just don't have the range to tell these types of stories.
The actors liked Bombshell. Scary.
Now there’s an impostor pretending to be the real me reacting to the fake me. What a world we live in *sigh*
But seriously no individual mention on the quality of Lithgow’s performance. After all the Russell Crowe praise we saw that this is a role when written that could get awards attention, but alas it was not to be.
Exactly what I expect with a Jay Roach’s film...
THANK YOU!!!!!
Ugh, this movie is so flat and belongs on Lifetime TV. Charlize, Margot and Nicole are all fine as is the makeup work but still NOTHING here is awards worthy.
Peggy Sue, what’s your secret? Everyone wants to be you. You must be living your best life. Ever thought about launching a lifestyle brand like Goop?
Ha Biggs, with all these wannabe's and a vagina full of jade eggs and crystals I'm almost fully GOOPed already!
LOL
It feels good to laugh again around here. The rebranding pact and truce is the best thing we could have done.
"It plays well but with a glib irreverent tone that is completely unsuited to a story of systemic abuse of power and sexual exploitation."
Ugh. I can't wait for certain people to claim that this film's probable inclusion in the Best Picture race means that women are well-represented at the Oscars this year. (Also, it feels as though any movie about FOX's toxic culture for women should center around Carlson.)
"Eerie impersonation" is an accurate description of Theron here. Given that she is all but certain to receive an Oscar nomination, I expected a lot more from her. What a nothing performance in a nothing movie.
I don't know if I'd nominate Zellweger, but she at least manages to create emotional resonance and inhabit a real person with an inner life while playing Garland. If it's between the two of them, it's no contest for me.