Trivia / Bombshell (2019)

• Acclaimed Flop: It earned decent reviews and became an awards contender (downright winning an Academy Award for its make-up). But given its main subject is both political and uncomfortable, and attempts to make the movie a "fun" look at Corrupt Corporate Executives a la The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short didn't catch on, it only earned its $32 million budget domestically and couldn't even double it with the international numbers.
• Approval of God: Zig-zagged. Megyn Kelly hosted a thirty minute panel of herself, Douglas Brunt, Gretchen Carlson, Julie Zann and Rudi Bakhtiar discussing what the movie got right.
  • Julie Zann was in tears as she said that the reality was much worse than depicted in the film, and that "they let Roger off easy". Megyn Kelly was annoyed at the scene depicting Kayla blaming her for not speaking up, calling it victim blaming. She criticised some liberties taken with facts; such as the scene where she tells Murdoch the question she plans to ask Donald Trump. In reality, she didn't tell him in advance and he didn't like the question; in fact warning her "no more female empowerment stuff" afterwards.
  • All of them laughed at the scene where Irena Brigante said she couldn't discredit an anchor she's paid to promote, calling it "the number one thing they got wrong"; Gretchen saying that "she was the queen of hitting talent" and that anything bad printed about talent was likely written by Irena.
  • Rudi however called it "a powerful movie" and everyone admitted to being in tears at the scene in the elevator. Megyn also praised Mark Duplass for his portrayal of her husband.
• Fake American: South African Charlize Theron and Australians Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie play Americans.
• Fake Australian: The English Malcolm McDowell plays the Australian Rupert Murdoch.
• Follow the Leader: The movie's storytelling approach takes after Adam McKay's comedic takes on political and social commentary such as The Big Short and Vice (2018).
• He Also Did: From the director of Meet the Parents and Austin Powers.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In one scene, Kate McKinnon’s character addresses Margot Robbie’s character as “Anchor Barbie.” Guess which 2023 blockbuster film featured both actresses?
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Kate McKinnon is gay, as is her character Jess Carr.
• Real-Life Relative: Josh and Ben Lawson, who play the Murdoch brothers, are brothers in real life.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Charlize Theron in full makeup and hairstyling as Megyn Kelly had some viewers rubbing their eyes to make sure that they weren't looking at the real Kelly. Kelly herself noted in an Instagram post that her own son briefly thought a poster of Theron was a picture of his mother.
• Troubled Production: The film hit several road blocks in the months before its scheduled release, putting pressure on Lionsgate. So much so that, in a meta sense, Tucker Carlson has used that as a topic for discussion on his program.

---