Review: "Bombshell" Lands With a Dud

Scene from Bombshell (2019)

With a better director (nay, a better script), Bombshell would've been a film brimming with such an urgency, defining the current Me Too Movement with its cross-section of topics ranging from journalism to presidencies to sexual harassment. The story of Fox News anchors bringing their boss to task for his bad behavior should be something that strikes a chord with viewers so much that they leave the theater vindicated that the bad guy got his due. Instead, it's an impersonal slog of a movie and one that lacks any urgency at all. What is found here is director Jay Roach's attempt at mattering by telling the story in the most boring, clinical way possible while still missing the point. It isn't about how well you know the story, but what it means to the people most being impacted by it. In some ways, it's the perfect embodiment of trend-hopping filmmaking that quickly exposes who hasn't seen it. Those who haven't will think it's important for what it's about, those who see it know better. It should be important, but alas... it's just desperate. 

During the 1970s, All the President's Men got credit not only for telling a gripping story of journalism but doing so while the nerve was still raw. The audience still had an emotional understanding of Nixon's Watergate scandal because they knew it. They saw the news stories and were able to recall their own emotions. And yet, those who are decades removed from even being born can look at the film and feel the urgency because it has an understanding of the process that finds Woodward and Bernstein suffering on a personal level to get the job done. This is the standard-bearer that makes Spotlight and The Post worthy successors because they take time to understand the depth of character. What does Bombshell bring to the table? Fluff pieces.

It's true that the news that All the President's Men is presenting and what Bombshell is doing is different. There's more of a reliance on social media and news breaking every five minutes. Even then, Bombshell feels like it comes from an antiquated period, an older model of cinema that thinks that presenting the facts is enough to get by. To Roach's credit, he does an incredible job of dressing everyone up as their real-life counterpart. It's a good imitation, especially Charlize Theron as the fierce Megyn Kelly. However, it lacks something deeper that makes it all the more unfortunate. It takes time to show Kelly responding to controversial stories, but they never feel processed. Given that this is a story reflecting the ethics of Fox News' approach to journalism, this feels problematic. There's no time to give Kelly a deeper meaning.

Even then, it fails from the first frame by giving the audience news that is not even four-years-old yet. Everyone alive knows what the 2016 presidential election looked like. The practices at Fox News are well known. And yet this comes across as a film made by someone who is only peering through the window, asking themselves "I wonder what Megyn Kelly is up to?" instead of wondering why she's so enraptured with a desire to take on her boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). Yes, Ailes is a bonafide pervert who wants women to expose themselves for job positions, but what more is there to it? Do we get a chance to see how these awful acts impact the women? Only kind of. Even then, the whole process feels studio mandated and lacks a chance to get to the deeper heart of why Me Too has caught on. It isn't just about taking down bad men but allowing those women to feel heard and vindicated. 

Which is a shame because if you're going to get a cast as talented as Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie, why not use them properly? They all have moments that read more like Oscar-bait, where they react to the harassment in ways that a conventional studio drama would. However, there's no real arc to add weight to these tears. They're just sad because they got harassed. Imagine if the film cared as much about its characters as it did the shocking act of being bothered, which even then feels manipulative. Maybe then the film would begin to find catharsis and depth. It would understand the complicated world of journalism and how there are frustrating wins and failures that come in tandem. All the President's Men is great because we see them being vulnerable and not connecting with the public. Bombshell does too, but it feels more like a situation that can be muted on Twitter. There's not enough engagement with it to suggest that this film brings any insight at all.

This would be a disappointing movie if it cared to try and tell a story that showed office politics in a meaningful way. Instead, Roach feels rooted in stating the obvious, reminding audiences about recent history instead of mining it for meaning. As a result, the film is a turgid experience that never quite has a breakthrough moment and it wastes its perfectly good cast. They look like they get moments of clarity, but do they? They're all designed that way and the fact that every last frame of this film feels calculated to walk us through the obvious only trivializes the situation more. For a controversial newsgroup, why not revel in the complicated world of being women in a controversial place? It thinks it is, but all it does is add tapestry to Roach's weird idea that watching people get harassed is the same as understanding how they feel about it. It's icky and does nothing to make this feel essential.

Bombshell is a dud. It had one simple goal, but neither the filmmaker nor the screenwriter had the insight to make this story have a bigger purpose. It's a shame, given that the all-star cast could've brought his to life and made it the modern journalism tale with so many more interesting dynamics at play. Instead, it's straightforward and boring, not giving anyone who cares about any new information. We already know how Kelly was bullied on Twitter, but Roach doesn't think explaining how it ate at her personal life matters one bit. It does nothing to make us care. This is the type of film that will be mistaken as an important drama in a decade because it presents a story definitive to modern office politics. Sadly, it will lead some to discover the improper way to handle these types of stories as well. It's not important. It's not even good. It's just a forgettable film that was better read on Wikipedia.