Bombshell

This was a film about women and the women ruled. Charlize Theron was outstanding and uncannily identical to Megyn Kelly, not only in appearance (kudos to the makeup and costume team!) but also in speech and mannerisms. Nicole Kidman was underrated and overlooked in this award season as Gretchen Carlson, but Margot Robbie did have a few more juicy scenes that allowed her to shine.

However, the film as whole, written and directed by men, Charles Randolph and Jay Roach respectively, was distinctively masculine and lacked a female POV, some of the scenes rang emotionally hollow and the dialogue though possibly, purposefully clunky for humour felt forced and unnatural. It lacked the witty glibness of The Big Short or even Vice for which it will be inevitably compared to.

Further, the supporting cast was too large and sprawling, and although there were some good performances (hi Kate McKinnon and Allison Janney and Richard Kind!), they mostly felt like distractions from the central storyline which eventually felt diluted despite a great performance by John Lithgow.

The whole narrative itself felt simultaneously sprawling and yet superficial, with Roach and Randolph never really getting beyond the sensationalism of the story. There could have been so much more to mine if they had gotten deeper into the heads of their three leading ladies (or even of Beth Ailes or Faye the assistant - an underutilised Connie Britton and an awesome Holland Taylor).

Theron was excellent and deserving of her Best Actress accolades. She gave a finely measured and calculated performance as Kelly. It was a brilliant imitation and Theron managed to instill some humanity to an otherwise caricature, but unfortunately the material just did not give her much to chew on.

That was unlike for Robbie, who had more juicy scenes. Her scene, alone with Lithgow's Ailes, was one of the great moments in the film. However, of all the Best Support Actresses nominated, I would not think she be the one that was really better than Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers. However, just like Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell, she had that one scene that sealed the deal whereas Lopez did not really have a standout moment other than she was a natural fit for that role.

Kidman has been much overlooked this awards season for her portrayal of Gretchen Carlson. Perhaps because she is such an established actress, a lot more is expected from her but this was also one of her better performances. She really has been on a roll this recent years, less duds, more substances. Her Carlson was a strong, independent woman (and mother, pointedly no husband in sight) who displayed vulnerability yet never weakness. She was, like Theron, equally riveting to watch. A pity these two did not have more scenes together.

Lastly, we had Lithgow. Boy, was he successful in portraying the creepy, sleazebag that was Ailes, but yet still imbued him was a sense of authority and wit that you would believe Ailes would need to have to run/manage such an empire.

The end result was a 108 minutes long pseudo-docudrama that had some great scenes, lots of great acting, but left the audience emotionally neutered. Although, granted, Roger Ailes getting his comeuppance was satisfying.