An intelligent story about the women who put Fox News on the run

Bombshell goes inside the world of Fox News when sexual harassment by boss Roger Ailes was revealed.

Charlize Theron, left, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie in a scene from Bombshell. Picture: AP

Bombshell (M)

National release

★★★★½

More than one movie has been given the title Bombshell: the most celebrated of them until now was made in 1933 with Jean Harlow, and was directed by Victor Fleming of Gone With The Wind fame. It was an “inside Hollywood” comedy-drama set in a big movie studio, and the title referred to Harlow’s nickname at the time as “the Blonde Bombshell”.

The new Bombshell also unfolds inside a powerful media company; it’s the story of Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, and their roles in the downfall of Fox News boss Roger Ailes. In this case the title refers both to the women at the centre of the scandal and to the effect their decision to go public with complaints about sexual harassment at the company had on the media in the US and, indeed, the world.

Television viewers may have already seen a version of this story in The Loudest Voice series, in which Russell Crowe gave a Golden Globe-winning performance as Ailes. In Bombshell the Fox News chief is played by John Lithgow, who creates a character so loathsome that it seems incredible that he could get away with his treatment of his female employees for as long as he did.

In the film’s opening sequence Kelly, played by Charlize Theron, walks through the TV studio addressing the camera (“Most of America’s Conservative Establishment is in this building,” she declares.) It’s 2016 and Fox News is about to televise the first presidential debate. In the past, the TV networks — both in the US and here in Australia — were expected to present political events in an even-handed manner; they professed to be fair, not partisan. But, when he established Fox News, Ailes abandoned that doctrine and set out to appeal unashamedly to the right wing. Kelly appears to be troubled about the coming debate, and especially about the questions she is to ask Donald Trump; she’s so troubled that she’s physically sick — or is her sickness caused by something else? She faces criticism from her husband, Doug (Mark Duplass), who, after she has conducted a one-on-one interview with Trump, accuses her of pulling her punches.

Theron is wearing prosthetic makeup that makes her look uncannily like the real Kelly. A lawyer before she became a TV news reporter, she is a very smart, very intelligent woman but, in her rise to the top of her profession, she has accepted humiliating sexual demands from Ailes that she now finds shameful. Not surprisingly, then, she is appalled by the future president’s reputation as a sexual predator and, since Ailes is a firm Trump supporter, she finds herself in a difficult situation.

Meanwhile, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), who has also fallen foul of Ailes, learns she is to be removed from her role as the host of Fox & Friends, the network’s political talk show, and decides to sue her boss for sexual harassment, hoping other women at the network will come forward to support her.

While all this is unfolding a newcomer arrives at Fox. Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie), unlike Kelly and Carlson, is not a real character but a composite (the film’s opening title describes itself as “a dramatisation inspired by actual events”.) Pospisil forms a professional and, briefly, personal bond with long-time Fox News employee Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon) and is “auditioned” for an on-camera role by Ailes, who insists that she raise her skirt to the point that he can see her underwear and is visibly excited as a result.

Lithgow gives a brilliant performance in a generally outstanding ensemble cast. Though clearly what used to be called “a dirty old man”, Ailes is a smooth talker, capable of exuding considerable charm in a paternalistic sort of way, and implacable in his political convictions.

One of his maxims is that “a liberal wants to live in a future he’s too lazy to create”. The film suggests it is his culture that is dominant at Fox News, not that of the Murdoch family — Ailes is crudely disdainful of Lachlan Murdoch (who is played by Ben Lawson, while James is played by Josh Lawson). The point is made, more than once, that Fox News is the family’s most valuable asset, so it’s inevitable that eventually Rupert himself — the executive chairman of Newscorp, publisher of The Australian, is played rather surprisingly but effectively by Malcolm McDowell of A Clockwork Orange fame — is obliged to step in and sort out the mess.

This is very much a #MeToo movement film, though interestingly the screenplay, by Charles Randolph, and the direction, by Jay Roach, are both by men. Bombshell covers a great deal of ground and is packed with incident, yet it moves at such a pace that it runs for well under two hours. Though necessarily a narrative with a strong political element, the film is mainly concerned with sexual harassment in the workplace and less about the politics of Fox News.

Thanks to the exceptional cast and the witty, smart direction, the story of what happened such a short time ago is both bitterly entertaining and unashamedly provocative.

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This little farm is fertile territory

The Biggest Little Farm (PG)
Limited release
★★★½

John and Molly Chester were forced to move out of their apartment in Los Angeles because Todd, an abandoned dog they had adopted, annoyed their neighbours with his barking. The Chesters saw the crisis as a chance to make a fresh start.

John, a cinematographer working in the film industry, and Molly raised cash via a crowd- funding scheme — enough to purchase a derelict 100-acre property, used formerly as an orchard growing oranges and avocados, but located in an unhospitable rock-strewn wilderness an hour’s drive from the city. The home movie about the couple’s sea change vividly demonstrates how, over the space of a few years, they transformed this unpromising property into a rich and productive farm.

A scene from The Biggest Little Farm.

The description “home movie” is not intended to be in any way derogatory. John’s background as a cameraman ensures that The Biggest Little Farm looks professional. And given the potentially dry subject, it’s also surprisingly entertaining.

The Chesters sought advice from Alan York, a rather unconventional horticulturalist, who advised them on the importance of ground cover for the soil’s rejuvenation. The theories worked and before too many years have passed the “biggest little farm” is home to 76 varieties of fruit trees plus cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks. To achieve this the Chesters had help from a team of young farm workers whose status the film glosses over (it’s not entirely clear if they were volunteers or were paid for their efforts).

There are plenty of setbacks over the years. Coyotes raid the chicken coop, gophers eat the roots of the fruit trees and birds attack the ripe fruit before it can be picked. There’s ultimately a solution for just about everything: when snails prove to be a problem, ducks are acquired to consume the snails. There’s also a period of high winds, and threat from a bushfire.

As the seasons, and the years, roll by, the Chesters record life on their farm in some detail. Molly gives birth to a son who starts to grow up before our eyes. Changes occur, but the farm flourishes. John and Molly Chester’s home movie turns out to be a very positive environmental documentary, a rose-coloured vision of a dream that came true.

In this era of doom and gloom, the Chesters’ message is a most welcome one.