I came to Bombshell with an almost three week lag from its release and initial critical reviews (including Linda Holmes’s take, which has informed a lot of my thoughts). I sort of hoped that it would be a fun satire about the clusterfuck at Fox News in the nascency of the #MeToo movement, but it was a bit more of a low-energy docudrama in the style of The Big Short (2015) but lacking direct commentary, which makes it feel more like a historical reenactment than a movie itself. What narrative does it challenge? Who is it for that’s not already on the bandwagon? Someone took two larger-than-life television personalities but didn’t really know what to do.
Wife disagrees and says that the drama lives in Megyn Kelly’s complicated set of decisions: her ability to identify the need for more accusers, who’ve worked for Roger Ailes, to come forward, together with her blindness about her culpability in allowing the toxic workplace culture to continue by not having shared her story earlier. Holmes says that the film doesn’t do a good job of connecting the dots from the Fox’s hyper-sexualized, sensational environment to the culture of harassment that grew from that, so I went in thinking there would be some blindspots, but I came out thinking that was not one of my issues with the film.
I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to take from it, except to remember that it wasn’t just conservative newsrooms where women were preyed upon and sold a bill of goods. It was the CBSs and the NPRs of the world as well. So I’m caught up wondering what’s the significance of this particular workplace culture? Is it the apparent conflict of conservatism and feminism to which Kelly bristles so often? Is it the voyeuristic pleasure we get from learning the ins and outs of intraparty squabbles between the various hosts on Fox, the mistake of quoting conservative talk radio to a host who thinks those guys are hacks? The advice to “copy from Breitbart” instead?
Probably the thing that was the most confusing to me was Kate McKinnon’s character’s reaction to the news of her friend’s harassment by Ailes: “It’s probably better if you don’t involve me. They already know we’re friends.” Why does she say that? Is she trying to avoid getting involved because she’s worried that it will splash back on her as well? Is she implying that McKinnon’s friendship with Robbie will make her less credible as a witness in arbitration or is she passing that off as a weak excuse to not help a coworker in an awkward situation? McKinnon’s character seems to redeem herself when she tips off Kelly about the harassment and their phone call shows that McKinnon has true feelings of responsibility for her friend, but it’s still not clear to me where her reaction comes from initially.
Just made a discovery that I’m about fifteen reviews behind and the year is only two days old, so I’m trying to make good on going back on some of these films from last year. Bear with me for the next few weeks while I try to add movies like Jojo Rabbit, Star Wars, and Stuber to the list (yeah, we’re missing stuff from June that I know you’re dying to read about). In the meantime, happy new year!
