Bombshell's reviews
Media reviews
The Hollywood Reporter
Bombshell doesn?t offer a deep or profound analysis of modern television, corporate doings or exploitative behind-closed-doors practices that have been going on since the beginning of time. But beyond creating a dynamic picture of a famous media entity in action, it strongly endorses the notion that, if people courageously stand up and speak out against impropriety and illegality, even against the rich and most privileged, justice can be done and progress can be made. You could even say it?s the modern cousin of a 1930s Frank Capra film like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, albeit much raunchier.
Variety
It?s easy enough to rip a story from the headlines, but not so easy to make it stick. ?Bombshell? has a finely textured, savagely pinpoint, you-are-there verisimilitude that the films of Adam McKay (?Vice?), with their fusion of topicality and borderline satirical ?tude, don?t. The office backbiting, the water-cooler ambition and treachery, the abusive secrets hovering in the air like smoke from burnt rubber ? all of that gives ?Bombshell? the excitement of gossip infused with psychodrama. It?s suspenseful, and deeply satisfying, to see Ailes? web of power unravel, as Lithgow?s performance becomes a tightrope dance of rage and fear.
The Playlist
On the whole, don?t expect anything earth-shattering from ?Bombshell? when it comes to complex observations on late-era feminism and its place among conservative women. A perishable but reasonably entertaining telling of a watershed moment (set in a time before the Harvey Weinstein scandal even broke), Roach?s picture plays like a tidier, more disciplined ?The Big Short,? but with a shakier sense of purpose.
USA Today
Robbie is outstanding portraying Kayla?s strong character arc, while Lithgow solidly nails the unpleasant Ailes, who berates Carlson while he raids the doughnut table and has women spin around in his office to see if they're (in his eyes) ready for a prime-time spot. In "Bombshell," the male gaze is played as an unnerving and everyday aspect of work life, not only in the disconcerting Ailes scenes but also just with grinning dudes checking out Kelly on the sly.
The Guardian
Where Bombshell succeeds is in showing how the predatory and sinister abuse plays out in the corporate environment ? in bullying. The film shows that sexual harassment and bullying are not separate issues but part of the continuum of coercion. It sketches out a queasy scenario in which a younger female journalist is taken out for a drink by a male boss who brutally asks for sex in return for career advancement, and the film shows how the aghast woman?s instinct is to forgive this man, to pretend it isn?t happening, even to apologise: ?I?m sorry if I?ve given you the impression that our relationship could be anything but professional??.
Festival Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote