Bombshell

Bombshell is based on the true story of Fox News head Roger Ailes ousting from the news company after several women came forward about being sexually harassed by him in 2016. The film focuses on how former Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson brought down the powerful Roger Ailes. For a film that is about sexual harassment in the media industry, it is surprisingly entertaining with most of its humor coming from targeting conservatives. The film is one of the first to handle the #MeToo movement showing the struggles and flaws of its women.


Bombshell is told through the point of view of women through its entirety. It tells a compelling and complex story underneath its engaging exterior. It handles the difficulty of self-interest versus doing the right thing and the sacrifices people make for their ambition and drive. The performances of Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman are very layered that shows each woman's ambition. Theron portrays Kelly being tough on both the inside and outside while Kidman plays Carlson as soft on the outside but extremely ambitious and determined.


Theron's transformation into Kelly is astonishing. Audience members do a double-take to distinguish the actress from the reporter. Theron fully embodies Kelly with her reshaped faced and the way she nails Kelly's speech. She steals the screen through her introduction in the opening scene of her walking and talking through the Fox News room to describe the organizational structure and power dynamic of the news organization. She brings viewers into a place where women wear short shirts and men who are attentive to Mr. Ailes.


The film begins the story with Kelly preparing to moderate a 2015 Republican debate where she famously asked Donald Trump about his comments on women to which he responded Kelly had blood coming out of her eyes and wherever else. Theron is inserted into actual news footage of the debate that is repeated well throughout the film to weave these characters into real-life events.


John Lithgow becomes Ailes under all the padding and the condescending comments he delivers to the woman around him. He plays the part with rage and adopts the health issues of Ailes to make audiences believe that this isn't the friendly Lithgow they are familiar with.


The awkward part of the film is the made-up part of millennial Republican Kayla played by Margot Robbie. Her character comes from a conservative Christian family that religiously watches Fox News. She delivers the most uncomfortable, stomach-churning scene when she is alone with Roger pitching to him when he stops her and asks for her to pull up her skirt to show him her legs. The look on Robbie's face is perfectly-acted as audience members can feel her uncomfortableness and embarrassment immediately. She embodies pain across her face.


When Carlson sues Ailes the film shifts into a whistle-blower plotline. She questions if other women will come out with Kelly on the fence because of her career but doesn't want to seem complicit. Theron plays Kelly with selfishness but once she does come forward it seems to heroic but her ambition is never ignored.


Bombshell is the perfect beginning of films exploring the #MeToo movement and the effects on not only the victim but how the harasser sees them self.