Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Bombshell

(2019)

How’s this for a cast? Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie, with supporting work from Kate McKinnon and John Lithgow as that mega-asshole, Roger Ailes. (Theron and Robbie were nominated for Oscars.) Three blondes, in the story of how Ailes was brought down for sexual harassment during the 2016 presidential race, the one that gave us The Orange One, an asshole buddy of Ailes. Remember that? I admit I had forgotten a lot, what with one incredible story of misfeasance and treason following another during the last four years, like hurricanes of shit assaulting us one after the other … and still coming, as I write this, with Trump and his enablers (99% of the Republican Party) still trying to steal the election, something they insist the president-elect is doing.

It all works quite well, though I am always a little queasy with stories that use real, living people. Hey, it’s only been four years. Those folks are all still around, except Roger. Some of the principles have cried foul for one reason or another, and I can see their points. So don’t take it as gospel, but it isn’t Fake News, either.

I have had my eye on Margot Robbie since Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. (I hear she was very good in I, Tonya, too, but I have been unable to watch a film that apparently goes pretty easy on that knee-capping bitch, Tonya Harding.) Robbie is Australian! Who would have guessed? I like her so much that I violated my “no more comic book movies” rule and watched half of Suicide Squad just to catch her performance as the crazy Harley Quinn. It’s a stupid movie, and the character is stupid, but she demonstrates a pretty impressive range by portraying her. She already has two Oscar nominations in her past (and should have had one for the Tarantino film), and I predict that there is a statue in her future, when she finds just the right role.