Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Bombshell Blu-ray Movie Review

Fox-y ladies.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 4, 2020

There is a rather interesting video on Megyn Kelly’s YouTube channel featuring the former Fox News superstar and several of her erstwhile (female) cohorts (along with Kelly's husband) who attended a private screening of Bombshell and then sat down to talk about it afterwards. While the women gathered have a few nits to pick with how the film depicts the now infamous culture of sexual harassment that was a fact of life for females at Fox News for years under the questionable leadership of Roger Ailes, none of them are shy about sharing the humiliation and career impact (largely negative) they all suffered when they rebuffed Ailes’ advances (as well as those from other males at the network). A lot of newsprint and bandwidth has of course been (rightfully) devoted to the #metoo movement and the downfall of once prominent folks in show business like Harvey Weinstein, but it’s notable that the stirrings of all of this probably gained significant traction due to the rumblings that began at Fox News when Gretchen Carlson decided to sue Roger Ailes — personally — after she was fired from the organization. Rather interestingly in that regard, Bombshell tends to focus at least as much and probably more on another Fox News superstar, Megyn Kelly, than Carlson herself, even if it was Carlson's initial actions that set everything into motion.

Another kind of interesting thing about Bombshell is how several of the main female characters break the fourth wall at various points to address the audience. That conceit is on display pretty much from the get go as the film introduces Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron, Academy Award nominated for her performance), who takes the viewer on a quick tour of Fox News while also not so coincidentally providing a little documentary evidence of the culture at the network, where men regularly ogle women and make objectifying comments about and actually to them. The first part of the film details Kelly's now infamous showdown with the future President of the United States at one of the Presidential debates that took place on Fox News in 2016. Soon enough, the temerity Kelly showed in confronting the candidate with accusations of misogynistic behaviors comes back to haunt her as the "Tweeter in Chief" (as he would come to be known, even on Fox) starts to come after her with both guns (and/or thumbs) blazing.

Meanwhile there’s a new girl in town, a so-called “composite character” named Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie, also Academy Award nominated for this performance), who, had this been another kind of show business exposé, might have qualified for a kind of All About Eve reboot, as she is obviously extremely ambitious and no doubt wants to be the “next Megyn Kelly”. That ambition ultimately leads her to the private offices of Roger Ailes (John Lithgow under what must have been pounds of makeup), where Kayla quickly learns that getting airtime on Fox is dependent on proving her “loyalty” to Ailes (as he euphemistically frames it).

Kayla is actually initially introduced with regard to the third main focal character, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman, not Academy Award nominated for this performance). Carlson’s career trajectory has been in something of a tailspin, as is doled out anecdotally over the first part of the film, resulting in her termination. Interestingly, though, in that regard is the fact that Bombshell offers two “on air” vignettes involving Carlson, one touting an assault weapons ban and another advocating for women not needing to wear makeup in order to encourage little girls they’re beautiful just the way they are, that might seem to be subliminally suggesting that Carlson wasn’t completely in step with the network’s zeitgeist.

Bombshell is filled to the brim with what some may perceive to be a glut of "stunt" casting, not necessarily only with regard to the three main stars, two of whom (Theron and Kidman) do rather amazing impersonations of their real life characters (the film did win an Academy Award for its makeup and hair). But on the sidelines here are all sorts of little sidebars with Alison Janney as Ailes attorney Susan Estrich, Richard Kind as Rudy Giuliani, and "bits" featuring a number of other notables as recognizable Fox personalities (the film "helps" things, identification wise, by providing on screen titles announcing a lot of the characters). In fact, while the film understandably concentrates on Megyn, Gretchen and Kayla, it might have arguably done a better job of delineating the "split" within Fox News, where some on air personalities (notably Jeanine Pirro, Greta van Sustern, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Geraldo Rivera) went public with their disparagement of Carlson after she sued Ailes.

Perhaps surprisingly given its "touchy" (in more ways than one) subject matter, Bombshell is often bracingly funny, and it presents a rather jaded view of what working for a major media company can be like. The film has another fictional character played by Kate McKinnon whose story won't be spoiled here other than to say it kind of spills into Kayla's at various points, and this aspect, too, might conceivably have been further developed. The film does engage in one bit of willful misdirection which will probably be obvious to anyone who followed this story closely and knows the ins and outs of Carlson's "strategy" with regard to taking down Ailes. Suffice it to say, her "secret weapon" is only revealed almost at the end of the story.

Bombshell Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bombshell is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is yet another film captured with Arri Alexa models and finished at a 2K DI (according to the IMDb). Aside from some passing deficits in shadow detail in some quite dark "in studio" shots, this is a rather striking looking presentation despite the lack of any obvious "wow" moments in terms of visual splendor or stunning production design. The palette is very natural looking and is typically very well suffused. Fine detail is very good to excellent throughout the presentation, with nice renderings of the sometimes skimpy outfits the Fox News women wear, but also providing a wealth of precision on the rather amazing makeup that several performers wear in the film.

Bombshell Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This is another recent Lionsgate release of a relatively high profile title that rather incredibly (to this audiophile, anyway) only features lossy audio in the form of a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. I'm not sure what's behind this recent trend, but I for one am a bit disappointed (is it really that much more expensive to spring for lossless audio or hard to make room for on a BD-50, which this release is on?). Now, that said, there's nothing intrinsically problematic here, and surround activity is well accounted for in the many bustling scenes that take place within the Fox News building. Dialogue and effects are all rendered with decent fidelity, but with a distinct lack of energy in the low end especially. Those who don't mind lossy tracks will probably feel this deserves a higher score, but my middling numerical assessment above reflects my own beliefs that Blu-ray discs should feature lossless audio.

Bombshell Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• No Easy Truths: The Making of Bombshell (1080p; 1:34:08) is an above average set of featurettes that gets into both production data but also some of the real life history sparking the story.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:20)

Bombshell Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not quite sure the "cheekiness" of some of the humor in this film really jibes all that well with the underlying subject matter, and any number of supporting characters could have arguably been fleshed out at least a bit more, but Bombshell tells its story briskly and rather bracingly a lot of the time. The three main performances are all excellent, and technical merits on this disc are solid with regard to video, but will be disappointing to audiophiles like yours truly who prefer lossless tracks on their Blu-ray discs. With caveats noted, Bombshell comes Recommended.