Bombshell Review
R: Sexual material and language throughout
Runtime: 1 Hr and 48 Minutes
Production Companies: Bron Creative, Annapurna Pictures, Denver + Delilah Productions, Gramsci, Lighthouse Management & Media, Creative Wealth Media
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Jay Roach
Writer: Charles Randolph
Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Margot Robbie
Release Date: December 13, 2019
Welcome to the wonderful world of the infamous conservative news channel — I use the term “news” loosely — which is under the scope of CEO Roger Ailes. Set in the year 2016, during the presidential election race, the film focuses on the female personnel of the network, including Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Kayla Pospisil and their sexual harassment allegations against Ailes.
Lately, the veterans of the Gary Sanchez production team have completely shifted from delivering studio comedies to making political dramedies. Adam McKay has been running the game with The Big Short and Vice, but now it’s Big Short’s co-writer Jay Roach’s turn to shine in the limelight. With Bombshell, Roach takes his own approach to the Fox News sexual harassment scandal. He does it in his own style that isn’t as in-your-face and pretentious as McKay’s recent works where he relies solely on archival footage to manipulate your emotions and hold your hand by explaining the events that took place. I admire how the intro makes it meta where it tours the environment of the Fox News offices without patronizing your intelligence. I like it exceptionally better than McKay’s stuff, but I’ll expand more on that later.
As you’d expect, this is essentially an actress masterclass showcase. Kidman, Robbie, and Theron do an amazing job portraying the roles given. Charlize Theron stands out as the lead, for the majority of the narrative is centered on Megyn Kelly’s perspective navigating the scandal in the midst of the 2016 presidential election and her beef with Donald Trump. As much as you really don’t want to sympathize with Kelly based on her politics given the context of the situation, you’re engaged with her on the ride. Charlize Theron slays it as Megyn Kelly. Thanks to the hair and makeup department, she closely resembles the real figure and nails the Kelly voice perfectly. Initially, it could be perceived as an SNL impersonation, but as it progresses and everything crashes around Kelly, Theron exhibits the multitudes of developed emotions to deliver an impressive performance. You feel her stress of being the media target and her steps across sacrificing her professional career when the Ailes allegations drop.
Kidman is unfortunately underplayed as Gretchen Carlson. She’s good, but she’s merely the incendiary weapon for the situation, which takes a long time to get to in the first place. Her screen time is also shared with a fictional character played by Margot Robbie. Robbie is great without question but honestly, I found her performance to be strengthened by her onscreen chemistry with — get this — Kate McKinnon. Oh yeah, she’s primarily paired with Kate in this and, to my surprise, I think this might be the best role I’ve seen McKinnon in… like, ever.
Her role is minuscule, but she makes an effective impact. They actually give her material to work with that captures the natural talents we know and love McKinnon for, even down to her expressing her powerful lesbian energy to Margot Robbie. I kept playing a bingo game with myself regarding which of the Fox News people McKinnon impersonated on SNL (spoiler alert: a lot of them) and kept questioning why they didn’t ask her to portray any of them here. Seriously, her Rudy Giuliani makes more sense than Richard Kind’s Giuliani. Anyway, the scenes between her and Margot Robbie are genuinely charming and some of my personal favorites.
John Lithgow portrays Roger Ailes as the fucking cuck that he is and it looks like he’s having fun playing this evil small man with a high abuse of power, just like the last time he played this evil small man with a high abuse of power.
What can I say, Lithgow has a thing for portraying fuckwads.
Now, fictional Fox News employee Kayla Pospisil, a woman who’s out to make her way up the ranks in the company until she has her own uncomfortable encounter with Roger Ailes, isn’t fully realized and very much of wasted, especially considering the amount of potential it builds for her in the first half of the film. She goes from someone who could’ve had a meaningful role in the story to a victim who feels pressured and is too traumatized to speak out. She’s written to be a visual example of the disgusting and vile grip Ailes had on the women of the company and that’s about it, which is a complete disappointment.
Remember when I said that I liked Jay Roach’s approach to this narrative and how he shows his own identity as a filmmaker rather than being in Adam McKay’s shadow? Yeah, well that only applies to like, the first 15 minutes because, after that, he just faceplants into McKay’s territory and never lets up. This might be because it boasts a script by Charles Randolph, who co-wrote The Big Short, and it has that kind of identity where it breathes the same atmosphere, which forces Roach to do nothing but frame it in a way that resembles much of The Big Short, but worse, for it also resembles The Office. A majority of this is shot on handheld and does the gimmicky close-up zooms within the same shot to get a character’s reaction, but it doesn’t work for this subject matter. I get that most of the film takes place in a network office space, but that doesn’t mean it should bear the filmmaking style of an episode of The Office. The film tries too hard to be entertaining more so than enlightening by incorporating fourth wall breaks and cutaways to uncomfortable jokes, such as one where a creepy, horny Fox Newsman in power makes flirtatious advances on female employees and you hear a voiceover of how she has to turn him down, but not too hard so she can still secure the job she wants. It often relies on this to the extent that the impact on the topic it wants to convey isn’t as effective as it hopes. It’s not as pretentious as The Big Short, but it’s oftentimes obnoxious. The film’s major strength lies in witnessing the insane hellscape of the network office as the allegation hearings come to light. The only time that the handheld format is effective is during the uncomfortable sexual harassment sequence between Kayla and Ailes, which has you choked up and gasping for air as you see the salivating look on his face as she trembles in fear and embarrassment.
Besides its odd choice of filmmaking format, it’s not necessarily paced well. It takes nearly an hour of the runtime for the bombshell itself to drop and after the forty-five to fifty-minute mark, the film begins to lose its momentum. Thankfully, it becomes more gripping after that, but it’s a slow burn that takes a while to kick in.
I basically watched Bombshell for the sake of the performances because the premise itself wasn’t too compelling, in my opinion. A Fox News CEO being a terrible person is equivalent to saying water is wet. However, watching the scandal unfold on the big screen was more interesting than expected.
Bombshell’s message and impact are dwindled by the pacing and the camera work, but Theron put her best foot forward for her role as Megyn Kelly. She’s the highlight of this film, though Kate McKinnon excels at being a scene-stealer, as per usual. Kidman and Robbie do the best with the screen time they’re given and John Lithgow is incredible at portraying a despicable person (as seen in Shrek, which Rendy mentioned above).
The fact that Bombshell is filmed like an episode of The Office is utterly unappealing and unnecessary, but it doesn’t make it an awful movie. As a matter of fact — get ready for this hot take — Bombshell is more amusing and enjoyable than an episode of The Office, so if anything the film packs some entertainment value with its politics.
Aside from an odd choice of format and uncomfortable approach in tone given its subject matter, Bombshell prospers from effective performances by the major ensemble — with Theron making the biggest impact — and a powerful second half to make this Fox News drama one to watch.
