Bombshell

“Bombshell doubles down on the myth that victims must be perfect to be considered victims.”

Title: Bombshell (2019)
Director: Jay Roach 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writer: Charles Randolph 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Robert Daniels 👨🏾🇺🇸

Note: This review was commissioned by Lionsgate. The content and methodology remain 100% independent and in line with Mediaversity's non-commissioned reviews.

Technical: 4/5

It’s ironic how two men, director Jay Roach and writer Charles Randolph, helmed Hollywood’s first major movie concerning the #MeToo movement—and how Fox News serves as the battleground for a story about finding the truth. The star-studded Bombshell, recounting the 2016 downfall of Fox News Ceo Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) following allegations of sexual harassment, is stylistically flashy, sharply funny, yet ethically dubious due to how the filmmakers paper over the moral shortcomings of the protagonists.

From the jump, Roach offers a tight cold open that not only introduces us to the building’s toxic work environment but to his aesthetic approach. The window into the news network contains a fourth-wall breaking walk-and-talk, hosted by a frank Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) on the eve of the 2015 Republican Primary debate. She explains Ailes’ rise to power—his work with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush to get them elected—and his tight grip on the sexualized image and disinformation propagated by the network. Other images show a leering Sean Hannity checking Kelly out as she walks past, or a reporter emphasizing how great she looks in her dress. His words: really great.

Outside of the look and feel of the film, the spot-on casting and acting also sings. Theron is a dead-ringer for the all-business Kelly. Nicole Kidman as anchor Gretchen Carlson imbues the whistleblower of Ailes’ predatory behavior with a heavy resolve for the facts. Margot Robbie, Hollywood’s best ingénue, instills the bubbly Fox intern Kayla Pospisil with an innocence that belies her quiet strength. The three women, amid a deep ensemble, lead a film composed of imperfect victims by asking viewers to look past their faults to discover how poisonous workplaces flourish.

Gender: 4.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

Bombshell, at its best, demonstrates the myriad of ways virulent work areas can thrive when victims feel as though they must hide their victimhood if they hope to continue their lives.

Take how Kelly perpetually denies being a feminist. Rather, she regards herself as a lawyer. In a work environment where women are continually objectified, the filmmakers show how the rejection of gender politics acts as a defense mechanism to combat ordained abuse. By this logic, the men aren’t complimenting Kelly on her dress because they want her sexually, they just want to get ahead. The women who go on air aren’t required by their male bosses to wear short skirts because it attracts ratings, it’s their choice to dress that way. And Ailes doesn’t stalk them because he's a serial rapist, he’s a man and these are just the cravings of a powerful man. These kinds of scenes shed light on how women are perceived in a chauvinist organization.

Such power dynamics create a culture of fear whereby women, forced to choose between their career or their mental and physical well-being, become active participants in upholding the system. The women journalists in Bombshell protect themselves by remaining silent in the face of harassment—creating a feedback loop whereby greater harassment occurs, as we see Ailes tell women “you have to give a little head to get ahead,” instructing them to twirl for his amusement, or wanting them to lift their skirts for his arousal. When Carlson finally does bring her suit against Ailes, tellingly, no Fox employee comes to her defense.

In fact, the women form a phalanx around Ailes by wearing supportive t-shirts, defending him when asked for comments by reporters, and pressuring others to support the beleaguered CEO. When Kelly hesitates to shield Ailes, a co-worker tells her, “Your silence is being noticed.” Their reaction partly stems from a kind of Stockholm syndrome. They see Ailes as a benevolent figure who gave them an opportunity. On the other hand, it’s not just blind loyalty driving these employees. The women know that if they break rank from a man as influential and vindictive as Ailes, their careers will be over. For them, to remain with the devil they know is a survival tactic honed from years of abuse.

While Bombshell isn’t a film by women, a strong cast of them—from the trio of leads to other characters like Allison Janney as Alies’ lawyer or Connie Britton as his devoted wife—buoys the drama. They demonstrate how abusers can hide in plain sight if they’re weary of who they can and can’t attack. The fruits of that strategy arises in how both women can’t fathom that Ailes would commit any of these acts. They can’t fathom it because they’ve never seen it for themselves.

Race: 1/5

While Black women like Harris Faulkner and Arthel Neville have made names for themselves at Fox, the network remains overwhelmingly white. That racial composition extends to Bombshell as well. The lone exception is a brief scene wherein Kelly recounts how Persian reporter Rudi Bakhtiar (Nazanin Boniadi) lost her job at Fox after she rebuffed the advances of correspondent Brian Wilson (Brian d'Arcy James). That scene uses narration by Bakhtiar while Wilson is hitting on her as a play-by-play for how women must navigate power dynamics when they’re wielded by male co-workers for sex.

With Bombshell, however, the filmmakers do not address Kelly’s role in perpetuating racist ideologies, such as her claiming the Black community suffers from a “thug mentality.” Nor does it ever come up that Carlson spread racist conspiracy theories when she accused Barack Obama of being a Muslim, while the multiple racial discrimination lawsuits levied by Black employees against the network go similarly missing.

Obviously, racial prejudice isn’t the story Bombshell wants to tell, and that’s fair, to a point. But sanding down Kelly and Carlson’s rougher edges so that they appear more heroic feels like a calculated misfire in a film that is supposed to be about truth-telling.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50

As opposed to the topic of racism, Roach does address the subject of rampant homophobia in the Fox newsroom. In the opening scene, for instance, Ailes sees James Murdoch on a surveillance camera and quips, “Tell me those lips haven’t sucked cock,” flippantly deriding 'gay' acts as a way of asserting his own power.

As with Pospisil, Randolph creates the character Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon) out of thin air—a lesbian Democrat in hiding at Fox News. Pospisil and Carr embroil themselves in a love affair whereby Pospisil initially denies she’s a lesbian. Though both try to fit the culture of the newsroom, in the hopes of swimming upstream to better opportunities, neither can escape its toxicity. Pospisil is ultimately pressured by Ailes for sex. Carr struggles to find another job at a better news organization due to Fox News being on her resume.

Though these characters exist, the filmmakers do obfuscate homophobia in another area: Carlson. When Obama re-introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to combat transphobia and homophobia, Carlson termed it a “distraction” from what really matters. While Bombshell isn’t a film about race, it does actively tackle LGTBQ issues. So to once again ignore a character’s flaws, especially in this regard, feels like a huge lapse in judgment.

Mediaversity Grade: C+ 3.33/5

Roach’s #MeToo film, Bombshell, might feature stellar performances from its all-star cast and fantastic biting humor, but the facts it conceals about the fallibility of its Fox News protagonists doubles down on the myth that victims must be perfect to be considered victims. Despite clear aims for honesty, the film rewrites history to the point of hypocrisy.

Like Bombshell? Try these other titles based on true stories of sexism in the workplace.

Grade: CLiMarch 30, 2021Great for: LGBTQ