Review of Bombshell- by The SilverScreen Analysis

Full text transcript of the review of Bombshell

Hey, what’s up, everybody, I want to thank you guys, as always, for stopping by the channel. I hope you’re all doing wonderful out there today. We’re going to be talking about Bombshell directed by Jay Roach, starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie. This story centers on the real life incidents that took place at Fox News when chairman and CEO Roger Ailes was swarmed with allegations of sexual harassment that would end up forcing his inevitable resignation. Now, there’s certainly going to be some mixed opinions on this film in terms of its accuracy in portraying these real life people. And I guess you could say the overall thoroughness of it. As for myself, there were some things I liked, some things I didn’t. So let’s dive into it. Let’s kick things off with the positives about the performances from the Ron Kidman and Robbie all really did bring the most out of the material, I think, given where this script drops into real events and how it progresses. I thought the three leads carried the runtime. I thought that Ron was able to disappear into the role. The makeup, admittedly, was a little bit of a distraction at first. But I mean, with her mannerisms, expressions and a solid tone of phrase, I thought that Ron did an excellent job of capturing the persona of Megan Kelly.

I felt Kidman and Robbie both great performances as well. They landed their memorable scenes, even with much of the spotlight being on Theron as Megan Kelly. I think a huge positive in this one was the performance of John Lithgow as Roger Ailes, Lithgow always just kind of gives off that vibe of being kind of a simple, very kind man. And for him to dive into a persona like Ailes and to do so with such seediness was impressive. He brought all the needed intimidation with his eyes and his delivery. And I think he did capture the role of villain with ease. Aside from the performances, I really enjoyed the musical score. It was able to build effective tension, but through a more edgy, playful fashion as opposed to being more just traditionally imposing. It was very methodical. It kind of always made me feel like something was about to happen. I thought it heightened the overall atmosphere of the film very well. I also thought the pacing was very consistent. There was a continual progression and I thought the script did a good enough job of maneuvering through all the vocal characters of what they had to deal with, how it affected them, and what their responses would be, which did keep me very intrigued throughout. As for drawbacks, I would say there were really only a few of them, but unfortunately they each had a large impression.

My primary issue with this movie was just the point of view of the story, just being much more focused on having a clear hero, villain, dynamic. I mean, public opinion on and Kelly varies depending on who you ask, but she used, to put it mildly, a controversial person that has done and said many offensive things throughout her career, most of which I would say were not ignored, but definitely shielded in the perspective of this script. And it made the story feel a bit uneven and one sided in terms of its overall examination of history. Sexual harassment doesn’t need to vary depending on how decent a human being is. I think Kelly could have been explored with a deeper perspective to show that despite the politically incorrect actions, at times she was a human being with rights that were violated by Ale’s. I think this film tries to kind of sugarcoat who Megan Kelly was to make her more likeable and more sympathetic when it didn’t really need to be done. And in my opinion, it only kind of lessens the message the film is trying to deliver because of its lack of even thoroughness. I mean, I think Charlize Theron could have really thrived if it had gone deeper into who Kelly was.

But with this surface level depiction, it really hindered the plot. I also felt the story arcs of Kidman and these characters were underdeveloped. I think there could have been just and better overall balance among the trio. Kidman has her moment. She really does capture the impression of Gretchen Carlson. But there were other times where the story felt like it forgot about her. And for Robbie’s character, the fictional character in this story, I felt like it was hard to really connect with her and what her overall intentions were, primarily because of just the choppy placement of her story arc and the overall narrative. So overall, I’m going to give Bombshell a solid 70 percent. Despite its flaws. I did enjoy it. I think it does more things well than it does bad. The performances from the entire cast make up for the lapses in the story to create an interesting film that does shine a light on sexual harassment in the workplace. But at the same time, it also could have been much better had it provided an even examination of all involved. It’s a stylish film through the scoring and visually from the direction and the editing, but it’s kind of lacking that in-depth approach you come to expect this time of year from a biopic.

Thank you so much for watching this video, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, drop it a thumbs up, leave a comment below. I’d love to talk movies with you guys, share with your friends, and without question, hit that subscribe button and the notification bell so you can never miss a video. Here are some links to some recent reviews. Just in case you missed them all. My social media links and the link to our official website are down in the description below, and I’ll catch you next time.