Bombshell (2019)

While I wasn't all that familiar with this story that went on behind the scenes at Fox News, I was very intrigued to see a film tackling one of the very first stories of women taking a stand against a powerful man, abusing that power. While this was a great story overall, there are a lot of elements missing here that could've made it a fantastic film. This film feels more like a tool to showcase how corporations have been run in the past, but there wasn't enough depth to really dive in. Filled with great performances and a true story worth exploring, here's why I believe Bombshell is one big missed opportunity.

This film follows a few main characters, but the centrepiece of this story is the fact that Roger Ailes would sexually harass women in order to give them higher positions at Fox News. He did this for years and many of these women kept silent in order to keep their jobs. If this film is accurate, Gretchen Carlson was the first one to speak up and many began to follow her lead. There is a lot of information and many insightful moments that kept my attention, but this film severely suffers from relying on those two things. More than anything, Bombshell wants to get messages out, but the pacing was slow and it felt like I was watching a newspaper article unfold on-screen.

Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly was a show-stopper, Margot Robbie as Kayla Pospisil won me over every single time she was on-screen, and Nicole Kidman committed to her role of Gretchen Carlson to the point that I believed every action she made. The problem is that the material they were working with didn't care about making a masterful piece of cinema. This movie would've worked so much better as a documentary in my opinion. Yes, these performances will absolutely be remembered, but the information I got from this movie is what I will remember it for, rather than the film itself.

This film is being recognized the most for Margot Robbie and Charlie Theron's performances and the Make-Up and Hairstyling awards, which it absolutely should be, but I also feel another positive is the fact that it also has no shame. This film is presented in a way that makes news outlets look like a disaster to work for and I admired that aspect. I enjoyed watching this movie for the most part, but it just felt like it dragged on, which was surprising, seeing as it only clocks in at about 108 minutes.

In the end, Bombshell is well-intentioned but ultimately comes across as an exposé. The performances are all fantastic and the story itself was intriguing enough to hold my attention the whole time, but there wasn't much else to latch onto. While this story deserved some kind of film, I don't believe an adapted narrative was the right decision. Overall, I would say this movie is worth watching, in terms of being informed, but it feels bland otherwise. I wouldn't say this movie deserves your attention, but the story does, however you choose to find out about it. As a whole, it's okay.

Fmovies: Elegantly handling difficult concepts, Bombshell engages the audience as it takes them through a difficult journey through a medium generally considered "boring" or "monotone."

Not even close to tv-series The Loudest Voice, run on the same theme. Watch that instead.

Bombshell fmovies. This film would've been a great one if they actually went full on with what it was doing, but sadly we just get a shallow film that feels like it was only made for people in Hollywood and literally no one else on Earth. There's a lot about the actual real life subject matter that would've been great to explore in film, and while the performances are great, it just doesn't do the subject justice.

The true story would have been compelling enough and able to send on it's own merit. Before the movie starts there is a disclaimer that the story is inspired by actual events and characters and events have been added for drama. Really? So knowing that they have basically made stuff up to enhance the drama you don't know what to believe. I think the women deserved better than to have their stories embellished.

BOMBSHELL 5 out of 10 Consistently disengaging.

Charles Randolph, co-writer of best adapted screenplay Oscar winner The Big Short (with Adam McKay, based on the book by Micheal Lewis), wrote Bombshell. He should not be allowed to write alone.

The material he had to work with in bombshell had every opportunity to be engaging, however it was horribly executed with maybe 1 good scene of tension and drama. There is a cautionary foremessage about the presence of dramatisation in the movie. There is no way the movie is less boring than the real events that occurred.

No character was given any depth, with the only distinguishing feature being the A-list actor in the part. Randolph could not choose a focus for the story, not any of the characters or even the main issue was followed to any significant degree; instead, the movie diverts to unnecessary tangents about what our characters are up to in their personal lives in what I can only assume was an attempt to humanise the cardboard cutouts. I couldn't care for any of the characters.

By an acting standpoint, I managed to spot 3 good actors, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie and John Lithgow. Lithgow's performance was genuinely engaging as was most of Theron's. The few Australian accents in the movie from the Murdoch family were laughable as they parkoured between British, American and have-heard-of-Australia levels of accuracy.

Maybe in an earlier draft of the script Kate McKinnon served a purpose, Bill O'Reilly was more than a name or Margot Robbie wasn't reduced to an extended cameo, but these are only some of the useless elements that made this movie feel an hour longer than it was.

Thematically, the story is hollow, with the only thing the movie says is 'sexual harassment bad', delivering a message beyond safe, that it barely registers as a message. Randolph was unable to even fully commit to any political view on such a significant event, with certain scenes trying to be apolitical and political, displaying anti-trump notions whilst emphasising the reliability and integrity of Fox News, with only a slight left lean, leaving the story forgettable. (The Trump sections were played as cute references?) However, seeing how it reflects my political ideology, it must be good 10/10.

But wait. Isn't it hypocritical for such a big Hollywood movie to condemn sexual harassment whilst also practicing a far more toxic culture than a Fox News office? No because the movie is anti-sexual-harassment, so I think they learnt their lesson.

There were very few scenes of significant CGI use, but boy were those 2 scenes very distracting. An actor on a roof looked like they were floating, with surrounding buildings and rooftop antennae looking less real than their wigs, and an actor was not well composited into archive footage.

Consider me thoroughly disappointed. Should this win any of the 3 Oscars it was nominated for? Probably not.