By Steve Crum
Back in the old days—during my youth in the 1950s, a movie like Bombshell would be touted in newspaper ads and movie trailers with such terms as “SENSATIONAL” or “RIPPED FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES.” Bombshell, released in 2019, is definitely worthy of that ilk.
I have watched this factually-based movie twice, and still have trouble distinguishing between all three blonde women characters. This is particularly troubling during the first quarter of the film, before each Fox News character/bimbo is more clearly defined. The hodgepodge mix of cookie-cutter female images—all about body sexuality—really confuses.
In that regard, Charles Randolph’s screenplay includes a sequence set in the dressing room at Fox News. Dozens of matching blue and red dresses are on racks for female commentators to wear on air. Of course, sizes vary—slightly, but each is equally styled with shortened hemlines. That is because Roger Ailes, network chairman and CEO, has ordered such so. That is repeatedly stressed on numerous 
occasions in Bombshell when Ailes (John Lithgow in fat makeup) references female employees’ legs…and the necessary need to show as much gam as possible during a broadcast. To Ailes, according to the movie and in real life, any woman is a sex object—particularly young blondes.
Incidentally, that Fox News look includes/included a kind of Stepford Wives blonde hair persona.
Bombshell really chronicles the beginning of the Me Too movement when two female Fox broadcasters, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) begin pushing back against not only Ailes but President Donald Trump. Trump was tweeting rude and sexist remarks about Kelly because of her questioning his insulting remarks about women during the 2016 Republican debate.
About the same time, Carlson was fired by Ailes because of her on-air support of an assault weapons ban. She countered by suing Ailes for sexual assault.
Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers movies) does a fine job in navigating the criss-crossing story lines. The third major thread involves a current, upwardly mobile wannabe newscaster who succumbs to Roger Ailes’ tried and true sexual assault methods. That means the old casting couch method behind closed doors in his office. Margot Robbie portrays Kayla Pospisil, the assaulted. The sequences are not graphic, but suggestive.
Incidentally, Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon is a plus in the cast, portraying composite character Fox News writer Jess Carr.
I am not giving away a spoiler to remind everyone that Roger Ailes eventually resigned because of 23 lawsuits against his reputed sexual crimes; and his lecherous 
ways are a major part of Bombshell’s central conflict. He had ruled at Fox News for 20 years.
Although it may seem otherwise, I am not sure that Lithgow is playing the infamous lout over the top at all. Seems incredibly credible, folks.
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GRADE, On A to F Scale: B-