Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Film Review - Bombshell (2020)

Bombshell is directed by Jay Roach and stars Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, 2 top anchor people at the infamous Fox News TV network but when Carlson lodges a sexual harassment suit against its boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) the dominoes start to fall over at the network.

Bombshell was for me a bit of a disappointment movie wise but before I delve into that I want to go into the films clear strengths first among them is the makeup work, it does a great job helping to transform Ms Theron into Ms Kelly as well as Mr Lithgow as Mr Ailes and Malcolm McDowell into Rupert Murdoch despite his poor attempt at an Australian accent.

Those 3 people also give great performances in those roles in this movie, Ms Theron in particular shows confidence, skill and poise in her role and is very compelling to watch, Mr Lithgow a long time favorite of mine is also very good as is Mr McDowell despite that bad accent and I also enjoyed Ms Kate McKinnon in this movie who gives a great dramatic performance and I didn’t think she had it in her in all honesty, I hope she explores more of this side to her in the future.

But as for the movie itself like I mentioned above I was disappointed in it and its really due to the films tone, this movie wants to be serious minded about Sexual Harassment in a professional workplace and there is one scene with Margot Robbie that made me feel yuck in my mouth yet at the same time so much of this movie winks and nods to the camera and there’s a lot of voiceover narration and people talking directly down the barrel of the camera like in Deadpool and the Wolf of Wall Street and it really bothered me in a major way.

And it bothers me so because I wanted to feel that anger, that rage, that feeling of powerlessness to quote a big 2016 movie Batman V Superman and at that point in time in my own life I was still on Radio and I know how I would feel if it was one of them caught up in this, I would want the power of a Super Saiyan (the greatest power in the universe) flowing through my veins so I could tear those responsible limb from limb like Toppo does with Frieza or Trunks does to King Kold consequences be damned but instead all I felt was this mixed reaction and when I think about it in the cold light of day it feels disappointing.

And so that was Bombshell a movie I was very keen to see because of its subject matter and its cast but instead was a big disappointment despite some strong elements in it, 2 out of 5.

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