Bombshell

Mad Max: Fury Road felt like some kid rambling on about a dream he had after watching The Road Warrior on a sugar high. Bombshell is the caffeine-crazed daydream of a CNN reporter who got bored while watching the Showtime network’s The Loudest Voice. That seven-part series was a little too thoughtfully plodding while analyzing the rise and fall of FOX News boss Roger Ailes amid charges of sexual harassment. In contrast, Bombshell rushes into a dizzying take on what’s meant to be the sheer evil of FOX News. The creation of Margot Robbie’s composite character of “Kayla Pospisil” kind of derails all that, though. It’s weird to focus on a fictional FOX producer for such a recent story – especially with Kayla as a male fantasy of a typical conservative who can’t wait to jump into bed with Kate McKinnon as a closeted lesbian co-worker. The script is also clearly conflicted over Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron making sympathetic figures out of, respectively, FOX stars Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly. Bombshell can’t settle for John Lithgow battling through a fat suit to deftly paint Ailes as a real creep, either. Megyn still has to explain that Ailes is responsible for the horrible sin of getting both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush into the White House. Furthermore, Ailes is apparently the first person to have thought of having attractive women on news programs. Kayla seems to be continually set up as a villain or a tragic figure, but the script is too timid to deny even a fictional gal her big “Yas, queen!” moment. That leaves the credits rolling on a big disappointment for viewers of any political persuasion.

[R]