Roger Ailes launched the careers of TV news figures including Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly, then resigned in 2016 amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He was seen as a de facto leader of the Republican party in the past decade.

Bombshell is the latest expose on Fox News and its founder, Roger Ailes. The new film focuses on the women who finally toppled him at the height of his power and influence with accusations of sexual harassment.

Other recent depictions of Ailes include Showtime’s miniseries, “The Loudest Voice”, this past summer, starring Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe as Ailes. A documentary was also released last year, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes. 

Directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Meet the Parents), the new film has an A-list cast including Oscar winners Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson and Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, along with John Lithgow as Roger Ailes. The script, written by Charles Randolph (The Big Short), allegedly uses dialogue taken verbatim from real-life interviews, eye-witness accounts, and public statements by those involved. Bombshell has already received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Actress for Theron, and Best Supporting Actress for Margot Robbie.

In the new film, Megyn Kelly is the standout anchor and Gretchen Carlson is a star in decline at the network; both choose to publicly take legal action against Ailes. Margot Robbie plays Kayla, a composite character standing in for ambitious young women who Ailes asked to prove their “loyalty.”

Roger Ailes launched the careers of TV news figures including Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly, then resigned in 2016 amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He was seen as a de facto leader of the Republican party in the past decade. Ailes died in 2017 at the age of 77, from an accidental head injury complicated by hemophilia.

Bombshell was proposed as a film immediately after Ailes’ death. Surely, in our times of #MeToo and Times Up, where allegations of sexual harassment by people in power are coming out of the woodwork, this new film is timely. However, despite some awards-season nominations for acting, the film has been mostly met with mixed reviews. On Metacritic, it’s received an overall score of 68/100, with a general consensus that the film doesn’t go deeper than the sensationalistic surface of its subject matter. Showtime’s miniseries from earlier this summer, “The Loudest Voice” also fared the same middling response too.

Bombshell premieres in select theaters on Dec. 13 and expands nationwide on Dec. 20. It’s rated R.