BOMBSHELL
****
Dir: Jay Roach (15, 108 mins)
The Fox News scandal that unseated its CEO Roger Ailes is given the cinematic treatment with a powerhouse cast and a passionate, justified anger. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie play the three women who ultimately brought about his downfall: real-life figures Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and a composite fictional character Kayla Pospisil. John Lithgow, under heavy prosthetics, plays Ailes, a man who expected sexual favours for career enhancement. Theron and Robbie excel as the wronged women, Robbie’s naïve Kayla thinking she has landed the best job ever before finding herself at the receiving end of abuse. Theron’s Megyn Kelly is subsequently bullied by Ailes’ friend Donald Trump, weaponising her “menstruating” on national TV and illustrating the heights of misogyny existing in the upper echelons of American media and politics. Director Roach and writer Charles Randolph go for the jugular whilst acting support comes in the shape of Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Connie Britton, Rob Delaney and Malcolm McDowell as the various men and women floating round the hub of abuse. Absorbing and engaging, this is a further indictment on why the #MeToo movement is crucial now.
Opens Jan 17
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