Screenplay Written by Charles Randolph
Directed by Jay Roach
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
RATED R
Full disclosure: I hate FOX News.
Of course, I am astute enough to be cognizant of the reality that is corporate media and how the networks in question are all beholden to the wishes of those who control the money, and therefore, the messaging, for each network in particular. That being said, I am not expressing this viewpoint for any means of false equivalency because FOX News is indeed its own monolithic beast unlike any other in terms of scale and messaging, which is designed to reach a specific audience through means of relentless lies and fear mongering. I am not expressing these views to invoke any arguments. I am expressing these views to you at this time just to get it out into the open.
Now, as much as I hate FOX News, there does exist some incredulous and perhaps prurient curiosity on my part that wonders what it is like to work for such an organization and for those that have, and for those that still do so, not only what is this experience like but how does it feel? What does it mean to one's spirit, if there is some one who is employed by an institution that is delivering a product said individual does not trust or believe in themselves? What if the environment is a toxic one? How does one survive? How does one justify, rationalize and even live with oneself?
Those questions can easily be asked of any of us, regardless of where we are or were employed, and I do not think that it would even be remotely of a stretch to believe that so many of us have been under the thumbs of an ineffective to abusive superior or worked within a toxic environment, feeling powerless constantly.
With regards to observing FOX News from my vantage point and seeing the widely public stories of sexual harassment surrounding the network, plus the publicized acts of harassment performed by the late Roger Ailes towards high profile female anchors like Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, I have indeed found myself of existing within the quandary of feeling empathy towards those anchors and simultaneously, a sense of unrepentant indifference because these figures are ones who have openly made millions contributing to a corporate system designed to harm through divisive information rather than inform with the truth.
These very feelings formulate the dark heart of Jay Roach's "Bombshell." his searing, multi-layered drama of sexual harassment in the workplace when that workplace happens to be FOX News. Roach has deftly delivered an instantly captivating, magnetically entertaining film of moral outrage and complexity, during which I often found myself fluctuating between solidarity, sympathy and incredulity. For a culture that continuously progresses towards a world without nuance, Jay Roach's "Bombshell" smartly provides crystal clear issues and conflict but defiantly offers no easy answers.
Based upon the accounts of women from FOX News, "Bombshell" charts the personal and professional trajectories of three central figures, FOX star anchor Megyn Kelly (an excellent Charlize Theron), fading FOX anchor Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and hopeful upstart FOX true believer Kayla Pospisil (a composite character played by Margot Robbie) and their respective relationships with FOX News CEO Roger Ailes (a rightfully repellent John Lithgow) during the 2016 election cycle and the then seemingly impossible rise of Donald Trump as a realistic Presidential contender.
Throughout the course of the film, we are presented with how all three relationships with Ailes are confronted and assuaged, while each of them are also forced to face their roles as women within an male owned and operated environment that is toxic to them in addition to the roles they have indeed played into the creation of this environment, which has then enabled their own subjugation. Over and again in the film, we hear variation from Kelly, Carlson and definitely Pospisill about how they are not "feminists," and yet, we witness the situations into which they become engulfed that forces them to seriously question their roles and lives and women within an institution that is unsympathetic at best to all women.
As I regard his past filmography, which consisted of broad comedies including Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" series (1997/1999/2002) and two movies in the "Meet The Parents" series (2000/2004), I am still amazed with how shrewd and sharply perceptive Jay Roach is when crafting his political docudramas for HBO including "Recount" (2008), about the Bush Vs. Gore election in 2000 and "Game Change" (2012), itself about the late John McCain's Presidential campaign and the rise of Sarah Palin.
With "Bombshell," Roach's film is more than effectively armed with a strong, clean screenplay and a collective of pitch perfect performances, especially from Charlize Theron, who once again makes herself unrecognizable--and not just solely due to dropping the register of her voice and the excellent prosthetic makeup applications.
As Megyn Kelly, Theron has worked from the inside out, allowing us to garner a picture of a woman who seems to truly believe in her sense of journalistic integrity and is honestly stunned when she not only becomes the focus of the story, but a target from the greater, and decidedly wealthy, White male, power dynamics that be. Theron, plus Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie are all conduits for far right wing conservative women who discover that even they are not immune to discrimination even when they exist within a belief system that constantly gaslights them.
In essence, we are able to gather their own cognition of their respective predicaments in a short yet striking (and if memory serves, wordless) sequence in which all three women are sharing an elevator ride, the elevator being the perfect metaphor, as one career is going up, while another is going down and a third exists somewhere in between floors, so to speak. Megyn Kelly, Grethen Carlson and Kaya Pospisil are all victimized within a system in which they are all complicit in creating, promoting and ensuring remains a cable news juggernaut propaganda machine.
Jay Roach's acutely penetrating cinematic gaze is quietly powerful as he never oversells a moment, or falls into hyperbole within a story and environment that possesses more than its share of inherent drama, pain and a healthy sense of nuance. Without any cinematic neon signs, so to speak, he just allows everything to unfold within a matter-of-fact sense of reality where the sights and words speak for themselves.
Just regard how Roach presents the sexual, racial and generational makeup of the FOX News environment from staff to owners, and no other commentaries truly need to be made. From implicitly dictated wardrobe requirements, a morass of insensitive to offensive comments and "jokes" from male colleagues, and disturbing closed door meeting with the lascivious, paranoid Ailes, every moment within the confines of the FOX News network, from behind-the-scenes to on-air content, is loaded through the unforgiving lens of a male power structure that can spin upon a dime if Ailes' sense of loyalty feels questioned or if employees are not towing the company line, regardless of whether one believes in it or not...and if you do not believe in it, then keep it locked down tightly for fear of retribution.
To that end, we are able to view "Bombshell" and apply the presence of FOX News as an allegory for what it means to be a woman in America in the 21st century, which would be a powerful enough exercise. Yet, what Jay Roach accomplishes further is to allow us to make up our own minds as to how we should or should not feel towards the principals involved. It is obvious enough that Roger Ailes was a monster and the cruel mistreatment of all of the women is abhorrent.
But even still, when I regarded Megyn Kelly's situation, for instance, I found myself wavering--just as I did in real life and her story was unfolding in the media. Megyn Kelly is by no means a martyr due to her complicity and willingness to further extend the reach of FOX News for the time that she did but yes, she was undeserving of a treatment that was, by its nature, completely inhumane. Both aspects can be true. he is no hero for extolling racist propaganda upon FOX News but should there have been retribution towards her for simply bringing out real world facts against Donald Trump during an election cycle, a cycle during which those very same questions directed towards any other candidate (especially if it happened to have been a Democrat) would have been fair game? With Roach's "Bombshell," we are then given a larger picture into how rampant sexism turns into games of professional survival.
This aspect becomes even more evident with a supporting character very well played by Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon, who plays Jess Carr, a FOX news staffer who is fully aware of the toxic culture of the network and is also a closeted lesbian and liberal with a Hilary Clinton poster in her apartment.
As Jess describes to Kayla Pospisil, she works at FOX because it was the first place to hire her and she is now unable to find another job at any other network solely because she is employed by FOX. In many ways, she is the conduit for which the film is able to extend its reach beyond the primary subject matter as it delves into the wider arena and questions of what happens when any of us find ourselves therefore trapped in a toxic work environment with no sense of any way out.
Jay Roach's "Bombshell" is smart, savvy, scathing cinema that not only invites us to explore patriarchal power structures and toxic masculinity but to even ask us to ask ourselves precisely what is feminism, what does it mean to be a feminist. and therefore, what is equality and solidarity in a world designed to create barriers against it...
...and possesses a 24/7 broadcast cycle upon our nation's airwaves.
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