Bombshell *** (2019, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow) – Movie Review

Charlize Theron gives a knockout performance as top news anchor Megyn Kelly, one of group of super-confident women who take on Fox News head Roger Ailes, who apparently presided over a toxic atmosphere at the TV network, in director Jay Roach’s biographical drama Bombshell (2019).

Margot Robbie is good as Kayla Pospisil, Nicole Kidman is less good as whistleblower Gretchen Carlson, Kate McKinnon is less good still as worried and closety Fox lesbian employee Jess Carr, and an unrecognisable John Lithgow is great under a pile of make-up as Roger Ailes.

The performances are variable, then, but only Malcolm McDowell lets the side down, miscast and quite terrible as Fox owner Rupert Murdoch.

It is nominated for three Oscars: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Charlize Theron), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Margot Robbie) and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling (Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, Vivian Baker). Theron and Robbie were similarly nominated at the Golden Globe but did not win.

Writer Charles Randolph wears his metoo badge too big on his screenplay, so it lacks subtlety and nuance, but otherwise it is a good, serviceable screenplay, written with clarity and decent dialogue. Commendably, it does deal with the issues in a brisk, careful, credible kind of way, making them more public and more accessible.

So, good performances, by and large, good screenplay, by and large, and good film by and large.

No knockout at the box office, it cost $32,000,000, and grossed $30,401,274 in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Movie Review

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