Four stars. Rated R, for profanity and (often unpleasant) sexual candor
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.3.20
It’s hard to be completely satisfied, when a disgraced sexual predator departs his high-profile corporate job with an eight-figure severance package.
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| Despite her ongoing spat with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump having become very public, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) is assured by boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) that he still has her back. |
Director Jay Roach’s new film, a scorching slice of recent history, depicts Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes’ fall from grace, following the brave revolt of numerous female employees who finally said enough is too much.
The frequently snarky script comes from Charles Randolph, who adopts an approach similar to that he took with his Academy Award-winning screenplay for 2015’s The Big Short. Thus, these events unfold against ongoing break-the-fourth-wall narration from Charlize Theron’s Megyn Kelly, who frequently addresses us viewers directly, in order to offer essential back-story. The resulting tone shifts wildly from dark humor to painful intimacy; we chuckle ruefully one moment, recoil in aghast consternation the next.
Stars Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie are backed by equally compelling performances from a wealth of supporting players, some seen only fleetingly but no less memorably (as with Malcolm McDowell’s fleeting appearance as Rupert Murdoch). Theron and Kidman play real-world Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson; Robbie’s Kayla Pospisil is a composite character drawn from Ailes’ lesser-profile victims.
No surprise, then — since Pospisil is constructed for maximum dramatic impact — that Robbie has both of the film’s standout acting moments.
But they come later. Our introductory crash course in Fox News-style “journalism” comes from Kelly, when she trots us through the bullpen and newsroom, her observations peppered with deliciously acerbic remarks. Theron’s wholly immersive transformation is frankly startling; makeup designer Kazu Hiro and costume designer Colleen Atwood — both Oscar winners — have essentially turned their star into Kelly. Theron completes the illusion by flawlessly replicating Kelly’s walk, stance and manner of speech.
The first act is dominated by Kelly’s unexpected feud with then-Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, in the summer of 2015: a headline-generated spat that climaxed with the latter’s tasteless accusation that the Fox News host had “blood coming out of her wherever” during the early August Republican candidates’ debate. Conscious of not wanting to “become the story,” Kelly absents herself for a bit, with Ailes’ support.
John Lithgow, barely recognized beneath the makeup and padding required to convey Ailes’ massive weight, is almost fatherly and sympathetic here … but that’s part of the man’s two-faced abuse of power. Given that Lithgow is an inherently sympathetic actor, it’s easy to think of Ailes benevolently, in these early scenes.
Carlson, meanwhile, has been progressively demoted from Fox & Friends co-host to less important roles and timeslots, for the unpardonable sin of having gotten older. To make matters worse, she does one broadcast sans makeup, as a deliberate move to be one with her regular-folks female viewers; this proves the final straw for an infuriated Ailes, who insists that female on-air talent be eye candy at all times — the fulminating Lithgow no longer seeming the slightest bit compassionate — and Carlson’s contract isn’t renewed when it expires, on June 23, 2016.
Two weeks later, she files a lawsuit against Ailes, accusing him of “severe and persistent sexual harassment.”
It’s important to note that Randolph’s script time-shifts some of these events, in order to make them appear concurrent. It’s also necessary to recognize that he has “softened” both Carlson and Kelly, in order to retain our sympathy; the latter, at times offensively tone-deaf, notoriously defended blackface costumes as recently as late 2018, and in 2013 insisted that both Santa Claus and Jesus were (ahem) white.
But that’s OK, because Ailes clearly is the bigger, more repugnant villain.
This becomes clear as we follow the rise of ambitious newbie Pospisil, introduced with breathless enthusiasm by Robbie, in full-blown ready-to-please mode. Pospisil is conservative and naïve, wearing a modest cross on a tasteful necklace; she’s nonetheless determined to make an impression.
And apparently not entirely conservative, since she strikes up a friendship with co-staffer Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon, playing another fictitious character), a closeted gay liberal who took the job — and intends to keep it — because, well, none of the other TV news outlets hired her. McKinnon plays this role seriously, with none of the self-indulgent buffoonery for which she’s best known, in slapstick junk such as Rough Night and The Spy Who Dumped Me.
Thanks to this unexpected — and quite welcome — side of McKinnon’s acting chops, Carr is another of this narrative’s many fascinating characters.
That’s key to the environment Randolph has constructed. Allowing for the fact that we are (after all) deeply embedded within the Fox News atmosphere, he nonetheless presents us with all manner of characters holding disparate viewpoints. The essential “observer and questioner” roles — the devil’s advocate surrogates of our own selves, were we present as these events went down — are handled capably by Liv Hewson and Brigette Lundy-Paine, as Lily and Julia, junior members of Kelly’s team.
Unpleasant as Ailes has become, while we move into the second act — and goodness, but Lithgow makes him a repulsively slimy toad — matters appear to have stalled. Carlson waits at home, hoping other female Fox News staffers will follow her lead, knowing full well that Ailes’ behavior has been chronic for decades. Kidman shades her performance with mounting anxiety, as silence reigns.
Kelly, in turn, becomes oddly introspective. Theron’s face grows pensive; we begin to wonder what uncomfortable secret Kelly might be hiding.
And then, the encounter that defines Roach’s film: a scene of humiliating debasement that Robbie plays brilliantly, when Pospisil eagerly accepts a closed-door meeting with Ailes in his office … only to discover that her boss’ motives are far from pure. Roach unflinchingly holds on Robbie, as Pospisil’s features slide from bewilderment, to dawning awareness, to chagrin, then embarrassment, mortification and even terror.
And shame. Perhaps that more than anything else, because of Pospisil’s awareness of the choice she makes — the choice so many subordinate women have made, under similar circumstances — and what this does to her opinion of herself.
We can’t help feeling sickened. It’s impossible to breathe, while this goes down.
Robbie has another stand-out moment later, when Pospisil finally unburdens her soul. No surprise, then, that Robbie already has garnered Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations (as has Theron).
Connie Britton exudes loyalty as Ailes’ faithful and (blindly) trusting wife, Beth. Allison Janney delivers a fascinating portrayal of crusading rape survivor and women’s rights attorney Susan Estrich, who — in the wake of Carlson’s lawsuit — becomes Ailes’ defense attorney. (Life is full of surprises.) Mark Duplass is terrific as Kelly’s supportive husband: a sublimely underplayed performance that doesn’t miss a note.
Richard Kind pops up as Rudy Giuliani, another of Ailes’ attorneys; Kevin Dorff is appropriately smug and condescending as Bill O’Reilly (who, it will be recalled, was fired by Fox after his own long string of sexual harassment lawsuits became public).
In one of the film’s most darkly funny moments, when the ship finally begins to sink, Bree Condon — playing Fox News co-host (and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.) Kimberly Guilfoyle — tries to exhort newsroom staffers to wear “Team Roger” T-shirts.
Roach and editor Jon Poll deftly handle the cross-cutting between Kelly, Carlson and Pospisil, building suspense and dismay in equal measure.
Although Ailes’ behavior is disgusting — and beyond dispute — this film is likely to polarize viewers in a way that The Big Short did not; it’s hard to imagine any Fox News true believers changing their stripes. That’s unfortunate; I’d hate to see the message obscured by a knee-jerk accusation of “liberal bias.”
These events — and Randolph’s clever approach to them — are too important to be ignored.
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