Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Liv Hewson, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Rob Delaney, Mark Duplass, Stephen Root, Robin Weigert, Amy Landecker, Mark Moses, Nazanin Boniadi, Ben Lawson, Alanna Ubach, Andy Buckley, Brooke Smith, Bree Condon, D’Arcy Carden, London Fuller, Sedina Fuller, Kevin Dorff, Richard Kind, Michael Buie, Marc Evan Jackson, Anne Ramsey, Holland Taylor, Jennifer Morrison, Ashley Greene, Ahna O’Reilly, Lisa Canning, Elisabeth Röhm, Alice Eve.

There is a fine line between percieved consent and harassment, and arguably we have all gone past it by varying degrees in our lives; men more so than women, but still, something we can all do better upon, a learning curve that we must take great pains to educate ourselves with, for if we are truly meant to get the best out of people’s mind and skills, then we must stop seeing them as anything other than human beings, we must respect them for their ability and not what they can do for us in return.

Bombshell is a film that hits directly out with a devesting eye for detail at how some people use their position to gain an advantage over another human being, by trivialising, by sexual exploitation, by persecution, all can leave their toll on the psyche of the victim, and by dismissing it as normal, demeans all who come into contact with the behaviour.

Even though it is not implied, there is varying degrees of such aggravation, and some are perhaps, without pressing the case for leniency in some cases over others, are quite rightly seen for what they are, the physical embodiment of torment, of the pursuit of intimidation as a means to receive gratification, a kind of torture to which the victim loses a part, if not all, their own identity.

Directed by Jay Roach and written by Charles Randolph, Bombshell shows how the downfall of television executive Roger Ailes was not only right and proper, but it asks the question of his own deep-seated misogyny, some might rightly say downright scandalous actions, and how they brought to light certain attitudes within business and the intimidation of women within the Fox News Group.

There is a moment towards the start of the film where it is stated by the sublime Charlize Theron’s portrayal of the indomitable Megyn Kelly, that she doesn’t want to become the story, and in fact goes out of her way to avoid being so until the inevitable happens, and it is in the damning, the denunciation, that the control becomes the news, how others assist, how they promote such behaviour by enabling the control to become tyranny.

In a film about how we view such behaviour, we can hopefully see a way past it, how we can help others to see the error, the damage caused. Bombshell will leave you understandably bitter, it will open your eyes to your own behaviour, and even if you think it was honest, flirtatious fun, it is not for you to decide on how it is interpreted.

A superbly penned and directed film, Bombshell explodes with force.

Ian D. Hall