Friday, December 20, 2019

Bombshell

From the director of the Austin Powers trilogy comes the true life story of a sexual harassment scandal at Fox News. Sure that seems to make no sense until you realize how good director Jay Roach is at depicting true life stories in the HBO docudrams "Recount" and "Game Change." This time a recent scandal gets a big, splashy star-studded theatrical release that involves conservative Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) and Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) taking down disgusting serial sexual harasser and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (a Fat Bastardized John Lithgow). 

At first Charlize's deepened voice - it felt like she was doing an impression - and her uncanny makeup were a distraction (until you watch footage of Kelly and realize she's actually spot on) but more than impersonation "Bombshell" remains a witty, glossy look behind a real life scandal that had big consequences in the entertainment news world. Writer Charles Randolph who also wrote "The Big Short" (a film I found unnecessarily confusing and cold) takes a similar approach here but turns the Fox News studio into a liberal farce with wacky cameo and wacky makeup jobs. And I kinda dug it. I dunno if some of the more silly elements totally jive with the more serious real life consequences of what these women experienced at the hands of the their gross boss but it make for sensationalist, almost campy entertainment. The performances from the three leads are tremendous and the fact that Roach and company has made people of a certain political spectrum sympathetic shows how harassment in the work place is not ok no matter what your political beliefs.  GRADE: B+

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