YMMV / Bombshell (2019)

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Tricky dealing with the fact that Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson are real life individuals but there is a lot of debate on whether they are sympathetic individuals, women knowingly working in an evil industry, or some combination of both.
  • Is Kayla Pospisil a Naïve Newcomer, The Fundamentalist, or a Rich Bitch who puts up a facade of being Spoiled Sweet while actually being an enormous Hypocrite?
• Anvilicious: The Wall Street Journal criticised the story for emphasising its message over the substance of the plot, and being unable to stop hammering said message home.
  "All that's missing is a chyron at the bottom of the screen flashing THIS IS ABOUT A POWERFUL MAN BEHAVING DESPICABLY TOWARD WOMEN."
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The films was an Acclaimed Flop that barely recouped its budget domestically for being a classic "film for no one": the movie is about Fox News (alienating liberal-leaning audiences who have disdain for the openly and heavily far-right conservative network) regarding sexual misconduct at Fox News (alienating conservative-leaning audiences who place Fox News on a media pedestal), and any attempt to make the movie a "fun" look at Corrupt Corporate Executives a la The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short (the trailers heavily used Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy") didn't catch on. A Forbes analyst added that Angst Aversion was probably in play, summing up Bombshell underperforming on how "folks didn’t want to go to the movies to watch women get harassed and/or assaulted by powerful men", and women in particular "don’t necessarily want to race out to the theater to watch something that explicitly reminds them of the horrors of the modern world."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: At one point, Jess (Kate McKinnon) jokingly refers to Kayla (Margot Robbie) as "Anchor Barbie". Both of them would later play actual Barbies.
• Retroactive Recognition: Liv Hewson would become more recognizable for playing Van in Yellowjackets two years later.
• Uncertain Audience: Several trade publications chalked its underperformance at the box office to this, despite solid reviews and performance raves: it's a movie about Fox News (alienating left-leaning audiences due to disdain over the openly-right network) that probes into the misconduct at Fox News (alienating right-leaning audiences not interested in potshots at their preferred news network)
• Questionable Casting: While most of the castings are pretty spot on, John Lithgow as Roger Ailes looks nothing like the real man, even with the heavy make-up. This normally wouldn't be a problem as Lithgow is more than capable of overcoming a lack of similarity with his acting, as he did playing Winston Churchill on The Crown (2016), but the opening includes prominent footage of the real Ailes which only calls attention to it.

---