Bombshell Review

Bombshell is a retelling of the 2016 sexual harassment scandal that rocked Fox News, one of the most powerful media organisations in the United States.

Bombshell follows three women as face off against the powerful head of Fox News Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). There was Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), the anchor of one the most popular show who crosses Donald Trump and his supporters during his candidacy for president; Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), an anchor who was harassed by colleagues and Ailes; and Kayla (Margot Robbie), a young and ambitious conservative woman who wants gets on the air.

Bombshell was a film that could have been an awards contender that looked at a major recent event or a well-intended but poorly made Lifetime film. What was delivered was a perfectly solid drama. The three main characters were all played by fantastic actresses: two won Oscars and one has been nominated. Theron and Kidman play formidable women who approach their issues differently. Whilst Kayla symbolised many young women who wanted to succeed and suffered at the hands of Ailes.

All three women have different experiences during the film. Carlson constantly suffered from sexual harassment on and off the air and gets demoting for daring to speak out. She’s the one taking the greatest risk due to her plan to sue Ailes personally. Kelly attempted to take on Trump for his misogyny and ends up suffering the wrath of the Donald and his supporters. And Kayla was a naïve young woman who suffers the full blunt of Ailes’ perversions in a really uncomfortable scene.

The aim of the film was to show how endemic sexism was within Fox News. A powerful little moment was when Kayla tried to tell a co-worker about what happened with Ailes and the co-worker had to turn a blind eye so she could protect her job.

Bombshell comes out in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the film portrays the Fox News scandal as the first domino in the scandal. Ailes was portrayed like a Trump or Harvey Weinstein figure who used their power to get what they want. Like Weinstein, Ailes had the power to make any attractive woman into a star: but he expects something in return. He had a memo: ‘to get ahead you need to give a little head.’ Whilst the Trump element comes from Ailes being a paranoid conspiracy theorist. All three men were incredibly controlling in their line of work: Weinstein clashed with directors, Trump had a tight grip over his businesses and of course, Ailes operated as an overseer. And all these men were very overweight who lived on diets of junk food.

John Lithgow was excellent as Ailes. He was a vile excuse for a man who used his position to get sex and made homophobic remarks. Yet there was a moment of tenderness when the scandal breaks and Ailes had to face his wife. The casting director deserves a lot of praise for finding perfect actors to play anchors like Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro.

Considering the subject manner Bombshell was going to be political in nature. Considering how polarised political discords Bombshell could have been seen as preaching to the choir for liberal audiences whilst conservative will see the film as Hollywood propaganda. However, some reviewers have criticised Bombshell for turning two conservative women in feminist icons. Obviously, these reviewers were missing the point because no-one deserves to be sexually harassed, regardless of gender, class, race, or political beliefs.

When I was at university I did a course on politics and the media and the film brought back memories. For anyone who’s interested in those subjects would enjoy Bombshell. It gives audiences a good like of how Fox News and many American news channels: spouting opinion than actually report the news.

Bombshell promoted the fact that it was written by Charles Randolph, one of the writers of The Big Short. I personally thought The Big Short was really overrated because it just a lecture the actually being a story. Bombshell seemed to be the same because the film opens with Megyn Kelly telling the audience about how Fox News structured. However, Bombshell focused on a narrower time window and actually told a story about how three women brought down a prolific abuser.

Bombshell tells an important story and blessed by its incredible cast. It will engage people interested in politics and the event portrayed could easily affect any industry.