★★★
A group of women take on Fox News head Roger Ailes and the toxic atmosphere he presided over at the network.
Classification: 15
Let's get one thing into the open before we delve deep into Jay Roach's latest biographical drama about Fox New's sexual harassment scandals; I fucking hate Fox News. I'm not going to get into political affiliations and brew up a fight about liberals and conservatives, Obama, Hillary, Trump, and all that tedious bullshit. I despise hypocrisy, dishonesty and Fox News has been nothing but a peddler of misinformation and right-wing propaganda since I could remember. So I find great irony that the main characters of Bombshell champion the importance of truth when they've made careers of making the very concept of truth a partisan notion. The timeline of Bombshell covers the beginning of the fake news era when Donald Trump was still considered to be a humorous long-shot contender for President (there a few on the nose comments of "can you imagine him as president?" yeah we can, it's not great Jay) but the film doesn't cover the erosion of accountability in media but the first of many modern reckonings of workplace sexual harassment in America.
Proceeding Harvey Weinstein's accusations and the MeToo wave, Roger Ailes in 2016 was accused of sexual misconduct in his role as chairman and CEO of Fox News by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. Which then began an internal investigation which revealed dozens of more incidents as Bombshell follows the three concurrent storylines of Fox News Anchor and Ailes protegee Megyn Kelly, Carlson herself and fictional character Kayla Pospisil, a young researcher at Fox News who catches the eye of Ailes. Roach's direction takes on a similar style to films such as The Big Short, (screenwriter Charles Randolph penned both scripts) where characters break the fourth wall to give the audience exposition and context to the characters and story but also uses other methods such as narration, cutaways to give some levity against the more upsetting complicated material. The editing muddles the timeline in places, with the first act seeming to cover a whole year in a few scenes but even with time markers, it's difficult to sense how much time is passing during the scandalous events. Despite this, Bombshell handles this topic effectively well with Margot Robbie's performance as Kayla being a standout as she captures this raw emotion in her most vulnerable moments, as her scenes with John Lithgow's Ailes makes your skin crawl in the most tragic ways.
That's part of what makes Bombshell such a fascinating film is that it covers this topic of sexual harassment in an environment of partisan loyalty, this toxic environment where the power structures of men and women are so clearly split by stature and appearance. Ailes forcing the women to wear low cut dresses to show off their legs, asking auditioning on-screen talent to "do a little spin" and it all speaks to the materialistic, chauvinistic attitude of the man and his sycophants. Women are completely objectified at Fox News and are punished for trying to assert their independence, many of Nicole Kidman's scenes as Carlson depicting the sexist and abusive behaviour directed towards her by co-workers and by Ailes. Bombshell, however, does miss out on a possible compelling angle to make its story more ethically ambiguous by not directly addressing the complicated natures to its main characters. Roach shows the nastier sides to Fox News and Ailes but the film still feels like rehabilitation of sorts for the female leads of Kelly, Carlson and others as there are minimal references to Kelly's controversial comments on race and sexuality. It feels like Roach wants to airbrush the rougher edges away to make Megyn Kelly a more relatable protagonist for the audience rather than dig deep into the other ethical dilemmas within Fox News.
Bombshell builds its drama from its use of sympathy and perspective, Charlize Theron who chameleons into Megyn Kelly's persona through the uncanny makeup leads the ensemble well with her performance. Kelly, a confident news anchor knows how the game is played, her fourth-wall-breaking monologues explaining this to us all with the first act focusing on Kelly's feud with Donald Trump after directly questioning him on his opinions and treatment of women. Feminism and gender politics run rife throughout Bombshell and covers a time where decorum and principle were thrown to the wolves by Ailes' association with Trump, giving him (along with other news outlets) unlimited airtime to spew his bigoted bile to the brainwashed masses. Trump hangs over Bombshell like a spectre, appearing in passing conversation or news clips, this infection that takes over the network (Ailes mentions many times "he'll call Trump" which directly questions the objectivity to everything Fox News reports about the primaries) but also the country as when Kelly finds herself in Trump's childish crosshairs becomes the target of death threats and biased media exposure due to his ignorant Twitter tantrums.
News is just an avenue for entertainment revenue to Ailes, finding the media circus of the Trump campaign another opportunity to boost ratings and gain exposure, creating conflict between him and Kelly. John Lithgow as Ailes is tremendous, capturing the powerful presence of the man but also subtly displaying the pathetic reality to what he is, a spiteful, paranoid, lecherous abuser. Lithgow's natural charming charisma is mixed insidiously with these inferior qualities as Bombshell presents many different perspectives of Ailes. We see him as our protagonists see him, to Kelly he is a patriarchal figure, a mentor, to Carlson he is a misogynistic abuser and to Kayla, he is a media God, a lifeline to success but all becomes perverted as the film unfolds. Ailes sees all three characters as one thing; sexual objects for his personal gratification; he made their careers, so they owe him. Beyond the disturbing scene between Lithgow and Robbie, Bombshell doesn't dwell much on the visual details of Ailes indiscretions however the revelations of what Kelly and other characters know about the scandals do speak to the damaging culture of silence.
We sympathise with Kelly, Carlson, and Kayla alongside all the women of Bombshell as it explores the patriarchal hold not just in Fox News but of modern America. It's very arduous material but supporting characters such as Kate McKinnon's Jess Carr, a fictional co-worker and occasional lover (yes you read that right) to Kayla highlights a tragic truth to people working within this system. Carr, a liberal lesbian is essentially trapped working at Fox News not because she believes in anything they represent but because she needed a job and now her association to the network has made her a black sheep to other employers. It gives disturbing new contexts to Ailes hold over his employees and the power he exudes when he needs to see "loyalty" and has Kelly's own revelations about her relationship with Ailes becomes all the more disturbing. How women are forced to "forgive" these actions as their careers are threatened and have to go along with the immoral status quo. Roach and Randolph construct the story to focus on the three protagonists struggling with this conflict in different forms but Nicole Kidman's Carlson is the one brave enough to actually take a stand and begins a wave that rocks through the whole system.
Then comes the usual excuses being thrown out "why not report it the first time?" and "she's clearly making it up for attention" now hurled at Carlson, with Kidman's performance terrific in capturing the stress and humiliation she suffers from. Although Theron and Robbie have more of a narrative focus as Randolph's script doesn't balance all of the spinning plates as well as the film should. Bombshell makes the direct confrontations to these issues a little too on the nose, with Theron and Robbie's dramatic scene questioning the cycles of abuse that stem from women's silence being one of the film's many melodramatic moments. The dramatisation to events is quite obvious in the film but the messaging to our responsibility to defying this troubling culture and how we must all be better in giving victims their agency back is still relevant. Theron's performance in the latter half focuses on her internal guilt but Bombshell doesn't want to place blame on women's fear of stepping forward but rather explore the complicated battlegrounds that they have to navigate to even have their voice heard. There are many moments to the film that are emotionally devastating especially concerning Kayla's character as she represents the tragic realities of younger generations being failed by inaction. Then there is the question of do the actions of these women affect real change? Trump's presence isn't just foreshadowing to America's political future but to how America still views sexual assault as a trivial accusation. Trump along with many of his associates, including one of his picks for a Supreme Court Justice has faced heavily publicised sexual assault charges and yet have not met the same level of Ailes or Weinstein's scrutiny and comeuppance. With Malcolm McDowell's appearance as media mogul Rupert Murdoch suggesting that Ailes' eventual downfall was to save the company money rather than motivated by any social or ethical justice.
It's a confrontation to the image of Fox News itself with Kazu Hiro's makeup work completely transforming Theron and Lithgow into near spitting images of their real-life counterparts. Lithgow's makeup resembling Hiro's work with Gary Oldman in the film Darkest Hour but the makeup isn't just a tool to make the actors blend into the physical presence of their role but to reflect how the reality of the women's image in Fox News. Its glamorous hair, makeup, form-fitting dresses and heels, one of my favourite sequences is seeing all of the female anchors being dolled up with bra pads and Spanx, alongside a whole process to look like a supermodel and then at the same time giving telephone interviews denying allegations Fox News forces them to look sexy on air, its obvious comedy but it points out Fox's blatant hypocrisy. Margot Robbie's look even transforms after her initial encounters with Ailes, taking on a more fabricated look; smoky eyes, glowy lip gloss, tight dresses and gorgeous hair, her identity having been co-opted into Ailes own fantasies. It's one of those subtle changes that makes the entire environment of Fox News so eerie but also can be seen as a recognisable trait of how other powerful men force women into similar positions.
Bombshell isn't perfect in the execution of its tough controversial truths and themes but with Hollywood's own skeletons about this subject matter in their vast closets (some they'll admit and others they won't), it still does enough to make itself noteworthy. Terrific performances from an all-star ensemble and plenty of small cameos from character actors filling out the dense political and media landscape of the film. Richard Kind's cameo as a conniving Rudy Guliani made all the more hilarious considering the contemporary contexts. Much like Fox News itself, it's easier to digest Bombshell more as idealized fiction than truth but its themes still resonate powerfully as even the most dramatised moments speak to such distressing realities and our societies responsibility to make it all a relic of the past.
Director: #JayRoach
Cast: #CharlizeTheron, #NicoleKidman, #MargotRobbie, #JohnLithgow, #KateMcKinnon, #ConnieBritton, #LivHewson, #RobDelaney, #MarkDuplass, #MalcolmMcDowell, #AllisonJanney
Release Date: January 17th 2020
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Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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