THE TRUTH HURTS (BOMBSHELL)

In the bombastic bear pit of US Presidential contests, there are always defining moments.

Many cite John F Kennedy's confident mastery of TV in the debate against Richard Nixon in 1960 as a crucial moment in a closely fought campaign.

The use by George HW Bush's campaign of the Willie Horton attack ad in 1988 against Michael Dukakis fatally damaged the Massachusetts Governor's White House bid. 

Bill and Hillary Clinton's appearance on CBS's '60 Minutes' during the New Hampshire primary race not only saw them deny his affair with Gennifer Flowers but it undoubtedly kept his campaign for the Presidency afloat.

During the last Presidential race in 2016, there were many popcorn moments. 

Looking back, though, the spat between Fox News and the Trump campaign over the attacks on Megyn Kelly was the defining moment for journalism and the wider Republican Party. 

Trump entered the primaries as a disruptor and an outsider - an outspoken candidate with no history of elected office, no personal history within the party.

He traded solely on his celebrity and his strong instinct for publicity.

Many seasoned observers thought Trump was vulnerable to scrutiny of his personal life and his misogynistic attitude toward women.

They were mistaken and Kelly was arguably one of the first people to learn this.

The Fox News host came to the first GOP Presidential debate armed with incidences of Trump's insensitive, sexist remarks which she confronted him with.

Trump was prepared for the question and initially sought to brush it off with a quip about Rosie O'Donnell.

But his appearance afterwards in the spin room suggested his ego had been rattled and he followed it up with a barrage of early morning tweets denouncing Kelly and then a CNN interview in which he implied she was having a period.

With his Twitter account serving as a dog whistle to his supporters, a personal campaign was unleashed against Kelly, fuelled by Trump supporters and extreme right wing news outlets like Breitbart.

In many ways, the hounding of Kelly set the template for future attacks on anyone who dared oppose or criticise the Trump Presidency, with him lighting the fuse by firing out Tweets about Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, James Coney, Adam Schiff, Mica Brzezinski and recently Joe Scarborough.

Kelly got hate mail as right wing news outlets like Breitbart relentlessly attacked her to the point where Fox News chief Roger Ailes asked the Trump campaign, Steve Bannon and their colleagues to back off.

They refused.

In a precursor to how the Republican Party establishment would pander to Trump's worst instincts, Fox simply retreated and allowed the campaign and its supporters continue to trash Kelly publicly, out of fear that the news channel would lose a third of its audience if it challenged them.

Ailes was far from an angel himself - as anyone who saw Showtime's miniseries last year, The Loudest Voice with Russell Crowe, can testify.

His dramatic downfall is also the focus of Jay Roach's Oscar nominated movie 'Bombshell' in which the spectre of Donald Trump also looms large.

Roach's film deals with the earthquake that took place in Fox News when one of its hosts Gretchen Carlson, played in the film by Nicole Kidman, initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Jon Lithgow's Ailes.

Following the Fox News experiences of Carlson, Charlize Theron's Megyn Kelly and Margot Robbie's fictional Kayla Popisil, the career of Kidman's character is on the slide.

Her challenge is how to strike back against Ailes when her contract forbids legal action, so she engineers her firing.

Charles Randolph's deft screenplay contrasts Carlson's situation with Kelly's who is riding high in the ratings and seems to enjoy a teacher's pet relationship with Ailes.

Popisil, a God fearing girl from a Conservative home, is a wide eyed young broadcast journalist, thrilled to be working in Fox.

She is taken under the wing of Kate McKinnon's closet Democrat and lesbian Jess Carr when she transfers from Carlson's show to Bill O'Reilly's.

Carr advises her that if she adopts the mentality of an Irish American beat cop she will thrive in the production team.

Popsil's ambition to get ahead is spotted by Ailes' assistant Faye, played by Holland Taylor, who lures her into his den via his personal elevator.

But it soon becomes clear that the interest he takes is not as a mentor.

She is easy meat to be ogled at.

Lithgow's Ailes is less ranting than Crowe's in 'The Loudest Voice' but much more creepy - although the paranoia about Ben and Josh Lawson's Lachlan and James Murdoch is there.

Unlucky not to have made the Best Supporting Actor shortlist at this year's Oscars, there is the occasional outburst but Lithgow brilliantly accentuates the seediness and misogyny.

Randolph takes the same playful approach that he and Adam McKay took in 'The Big Short', with regular nods and winks to the audience as Theron's Megyn Kelly frequently breaking the fourth wall.

Roach is also a seasoned hand when it comes to depicting political controversies - he made the Bush v Gore drama 'Recount' with Kevin Spacey and HBO's Sarah Palin movie 'Game Change' with Julianne Moore.

In 'Bombshell' he gleefully attacks his subject, enjoying the breaking of the fourth wall and, with the help of cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and film editor Jon Poll, vibrantly depicting the buzz of the newsroom of America's most popular and effective propaganda channel.

Where 'Bombshell' really scores is its focus on the toxic packaging of Conservative politics within a culture of sexism and sex - with a casual mention of the frequent shots of female presenters' legs and the reason why they have glass tables.

It is this toxic culture that leads to Ailes and other men abusing their position of power and abusing women and the film doesn't pull its punches in its depiction of that.

There is, however, a lot of fun to be had from watching how the film depicts some of Fox News' famous names such as Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly who also had to leave the network because of sexual harassment allegations.

The insistence that Kelly participate in a circling of the wagons around Roger Ailes hardly casts Alanna Ubach's Pirro in a good light.

And while the movie dives into the toxic sludge of office power games and sexism, it is the performances that make it bearable.

Theron is particularly top notch, using prosthetics enabling to look uncannily like Megyn Kelly but also capturing her deep voice in a commanding performance.

Kidman and Robbie also impress as employees at different ends of the Fox News feeding chain.

McKinnon turns in arguably her best screen performance to date - eschewing her usual tendency to overact for a more subtle portrayal of a production team member just trying to survive.

Malcolm McDowell turns up as Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and has fun with the role.

Allison Janney is, as usual, a delight as Susan Estrich, the no nonsense legal counsel to Ailes.

There are also eye catching performances too from Rob Delaney as Kelly's producer, Mark Duplass as her husband and Richard Kind as former New York Mayor and Trump ally, Rudy Giuliani.

In many respects, 'Bombshell' plays out like a grotesque companion piece to Adam McKay's Vice President Dick Cheney biopic Vice.

Razor sharp in every aspect, even in its title, Roach's film should serve as a warning to men and women about toxic atmospheres in the workplace.

However in an election year, when many Fox News and Fox Business hosts are acting as cheerleaders for a President whose treatment of women has been highly questionable, it raises questions about the toxicity that the channels have injected into US public discourse.

And while it would undoubtedly be good to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, you are left wondering in the age of online propaganda, would that actually work? 

('Bombshell' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on January 24, 2020 and was released on DVD and streaming services on May 18, 2020)