Bombshell (2019)

Bombshell, which purports to tell the story surrounding the sexual harassment claims against Fox News chief Roger Ailes, is a briskly paced film that manages to entertain despite it's subject matter. In fact, the film really only scratches the surface of its subject, and instead becomes the kind of film where you go, "wow, they really got a guy who looks like Bill O'Reilly!"

Directed by Jay Roach, it's in the style of fourth-wall breaking that we've seen in other films like The Big Short. We get three narrators here, each laying out exposition directly to the viewer. I guess that's better than characters awkwardly explaining things to each other, but still the style seems passe by now.

The key moment in the film is when Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) has been demoted to a weaker time slot. She sees it as being punished for complaining about a boys' club atmosphere. Ailes (John Lithgow), who looks like Jabba the Hutt (which he mentions) holds his female anchors to high standards: they must look good in short dresses (Fox has clear desks on set, so plenty of leg can be shown) and they mus show him personal "loyalty," which we later understand is various forms of sexual contact, up to blowjobs.

Carlson, after being fired (the last straw seems to be her favoring the semi-automatic weapons ban) files suit against Ailes. Almost all of the women at Fox News come to Ailes' side, but their most prominent anchor, Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) remains suspiciously silent. A third woman (Margot Robbie), a producer for O'Reilly, also remains silent, even though Ailes asked her to raise her skirt so high her panties showed.

What exactly is true here I don't know, as I didn't follow the case closely. The main spine of the film is Kelly trying to decide what to do, while she is pressured by others, like Jeanine Pirro, to come out for Roger. Her staff, afraid of what her losing her job could mean to them, provide her differing advice.

Bombshell is pretty good, snappily written and very well acted. All three leads are terrific. Robbie, especially, plays a composite character who is a young woman who is a true conservative believer and wants to make her parents and grandparents proud--her look of disillusionment as she realizes what an ogre Ailes is is heartbreaking.

A lot of credit in Bombshell must be given to the makeup department. Theron and Kidman are made to look as much like their characters as possible. In addition, Lithgow is padded in makeup to make him morbidly obese, and even Malcolm McDowell, in one scene as Rupert Murdoch, is made up with all the nooks and crannies of the face of that magnate.

I found it interesting that the women were made to be heroic, though not completely. This film was not produced by admirers of Fox News. We see Kelly in her contretemps with Donald Trump, sure, but we also get a glimpse of her remarkably stupid assurance that Santa Claus is white. What makes Bombshell most effective, I guess, is that conservative women are accusing a man of sexual harassment (Kelly frequently asserts that she is not a feminist). It's the old if Nixon can go to China argument.