"It's a visual medium."

-Roger Ailes





Bombshell focuses on three female employees at Fox News and how they handle being sexually harassed by the founder, Roger Ailes (Jonn Lithgow). It's based off true events.









What Works:





Bombshell tells a very engaging story. We have three different protagonists and each of their stories is very interesting. It was fascinating and horrifying to watch as all of their stories came together and was surprisingly intense.





Margot Robbie is the best part of the film. She plays an amalgamation of real-life people and her character is our window into how bad the harassment was. What starts off as an interesting scene of Robbie and Lithgow discussing politics and media turns very uncomfortable very fast. It's a really well done scene that made my stomach shrivel up. Later, she breaks down in the middle of a phone call. It's excellent acting from Robbie and a powerful performance.





Nicole Kidman also does a great job as Gretchen Carlson, the woman who got the ball rolling in taking down Ailes. Kidman's anger is palpable even when she's trying to hold it back.





The other really interesting aspect of the film is getting to see the dynamic of Fox News. We learn a little of Ailes' backstoty and see how he ran the place. It's a really intriguing and I just wanted to see more of the working conditions at Fox.





The movie does a good job of mirroring the real life reactions to people coming forward about being sexually harassed. We get a wide variety of characters behaving in a variety of ways, from supportive, to outright disgusting. It sucks to watch and makes you lose some faith in humanity, but rings true to reality and makes its point well.





Finally, I appreciate that Bombshell didn't go after much low-hanging fruit in regards to Fox News. I was nervous this movie might go the route of Vice, but that wasn't the case. There were maybe two jokey jabs at Fox and we saw both of them in the the trailer. The rest all came from actual clips from their shows. The filmmakers stayed focused on telling the story.









What Sucks:





My only real complaint is surprisingly about Charlize Theron. Her accent was wildly inconsistent and she never really sounds like Megyn Kelly. She looks the part, for sure, but she took me out of the movie with most of her dialogue.









Verdict:





Bombshell is a very important movie with a fascinating story in a great setting, excellent performances, and a timely message. Chalize Theron's accent needed some work, but this movie has still got it going on.





9/10: Great



