Producers: AJ Dix, Beth Kono, Charles Randolph, Jay Roach, Margaret Riley and Michelle Graham   Director: Jay Roach   Screenplay: Charles Randolph   Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Mark Duplass, Rob Delaney, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Holland Taylor, Stephen Root, Alice Eve, Alanna Ubach, Spencer Garrett, Brooke Smith, Ben Lawson, Josh Lawson, P.J. Byrne and Marc Evan Jackson   Distributor: Lionsgate

Grade:  B-

The disclosure of the culture of sexual harassment at Fox News that led to the dismissal of founder and long-time boss Roger Ailes in 2016 is given slick, entertaining but somewhat scattershot treatment in Jay Roach’s movie, which aims for the same sort of snarky, fast-paced energy that Adam McKay brought to “The Big Short” and “Vice” (in fact, scripter Charles Randolph was also the co-writer of “Short”) but also wants to be a stinging commentary on toxic masculinity in a workplace that was also a seedbed of toxic politics.  “Bombshell” sizzles and simmers but rarely explodes in the way the title suggests it will.

And when it does, it’s mostly because of the volcanic presence as Ailes of John Lithgow, encased in so much makeup that he’s practically unrecognizable (though the voice remains unmistakable).  The actor makes the Fox chief such a sleazy manipulator, both of people and of the news, and so contemptible a predator that it’s a joy to watch his ignominious fall at the hands of the smoothly calculating Rupert Murdoch (Malcolm McDowell, in a choice cameo).

The focus of the film is, however, on the women who bring him down, and here the movie isn’t quite as richly rewarding.  It’s not that Nicole Kidman, as Gretchen Carlson, who was the first to level accusations at Ailes, and Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, who eventually (and decisively) supported the charge, are inadequate.  It’s that Carlson and Kelly—as well as Margot Robbie as a composite character called Kayla Pospisil, who represents the current victims of Ailes’s unwelcome attentions—suffer not just because of his lust and willingness to use his power to satisfy it, but because of their own ambition to succeed in a cutthroat business.  That complexity, while certainly not ignored, is never really inspected in a serious way, and that failure ultimately undercuts their performances.

Nonetheless, if one is willing to accept a sensationalist surface without much depth beneath it, “Bombshell” provides an enjoyable if somewhat shallow ride.  It begins with the 2016 Republican presidential debate in which Kelly is poised to ask Donald Trump a question about his venomous remarks about women.  Ailes is ostensibly supportive, but one has to wonder when Kelly falls ill before going on air.

Carlson, meanwhile, who had previously been effectively demoted at the network, and the afternoon program she headlines is then terminated with the end of her contract in June.  The following month she files suit against Ailes for sexual harassment, alleging she was fired for rejecting his advances.  And Pospisil, a true believer for whom Fox is essentially an extension of her family’s evangelical fervor, is recruited by Ailes’s executive assistant and facilitator Faye (Holland Taylor) as a potential new conquest.

What follows concentrates primarily on Kelly, whose attempts to navigate the tightrope between her knowledge of Ailes’s behavior and her professional security grow increasingly difficult, and Pospisil, who becomes more and more dependent on Ailes’s patronage even as Jess (Kate McKinnon), the lesbian colleague who’s befriended her, warns her about the dangerous path she’s chosen.  By contrast Carlson’s story falls somewhat into the background as she confers with her lawyers about the need for other women to come forward and the problem posed by binding arbitration agreements—and tries to deal with the reality of the doldrums into which her career has fallen.

All this is set against the backdrop of the Fox News studios, where the staff splits into factions, some coming unstintingly to Ailes’s defense and others gingerly moving to the other side.  Watching folks like Bill O’Reilly (Kevin Dorff), Sean Hannity (Spencer Garrett), Geraldo Rivera (Tony Plana), Neil Cavuto (P.J. Byrne)Bret Baier (Michael Buie), Chris Wallace (Marc Evan Jackson), Greta Van Susteren (Anne Ramsay), Bill Shine (Mark Moses) and Jeanine Pirro (Alanna Ubach) mill about the newsroom talking about their boss’s problems (Pirro being his shrillest defender), and Ailes advisors Susan Estrich (Allison Janney) and Rudy Giuliani (Richard Kind) becoming embroiled in his increasingly hopeless rebuttals is undeniably fun, even if the portrayals aren’t particularly sharp.  (The periodic use of real footage, from the debates but also in the form of testimony from some of Ailes’s actual victims, accentuates the flaws in the “recreations.”)

Nonetheless Theron, Kidman and Robbie all do excellent work, and McKinnon is her usual energetic self, even if Jess’ friendship with Kayla—which goes so far as to include a scene of them sharing a bed, presumably platonically—never rings true.  And there are nice cameos by Holland and Stephen Root as one of Carlson’s lawyers.  Technical credits are strong across the board, with the cinematography (Barry Ackroyd), production design (Mark Ricker), and editing (Jon Poll) all topnotch.  And overshadowing it all is Lithgow’s commanding Ailes, a grotesque colossus whose fall is depicted as well overdue (a point of view that some true believers will undoubtedly still dispute, despite all the evidence).

The Ailes story has been covered in several fine documentaries and the Showtime series “The Loudest Voice” with Russell Crowe.  What distinguishes “Bombshell” is its perspective, that of the victims of his harassment.  The fact that it gives them voice alone makes it worth seeing, despite its flaws.     

Grade: B-

After Michael Bay’s last atrocious “Transformers” movie “The Last Knight,” you really had to wonder whether another based on the Hasbro toy line was necessary. Perhaps not, but “Bumblebee” shows that the franchise about alien robots that turn into cars still has some gas left in the tank.

Directed by Travis Knight with a significantly lighter touch than Bay could ever manage, the movie is a prequel of sorts, being set in 1987 as the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons back on Cybertron has reached crisis point and Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) must order retreat and retrenchment. He tasks B-127 (Dylan O’Brien), later to be called Bumblebee, to travel to earth to protect the planet as a future refuge for his reassembled force of warriors.

B-127 follows orders but crash lands in the middle of a Special Ops training exercise being led by a gruff military man named Jack Burns (John Cena); a firefight and chase ensue, ended only when Decepticon Blitzwing (David Sobolov) intervenes in pursuit of B-127. In their battle Blitzwing destroys B-127’s voicebox and damages his memory, but B-127 rallies, defeats Blitzwing and goes into hiding.

Thus far the picture has been standard-issue if smaller-scaled “Transformers” fare, and frankly none too interesting. Now, however, the focus turns to Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), a girl living in a nearby Northern California town who’s just turning eighteen. Still mourning the death of her beloved father (heart attack) and trying to get along with her mom Sally (Pamela Adlon), stepdad Ron (Stephen Schneider) and younger brother Otis (Jason Drucker), she’s bullied by the mean girls even as Memo (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), her neighbor and co-worker at the local boardwalk, is clearly infatuated with her. (We’ll also learn that she was once an avid high diver, but is terrified to jump since her dad, also her coach, died. Naturally that wrinkle will reappear in the climactic action scene.)

What Charlie wants more than anything is a car, and kindly junkyard owner Hank (Len Cariou) gives her one as a birthday gift—a broken-down yellow Volkswagen Beetle she’s found on his lot. It is, of course, B-127 in disguise. It’s not long before Charlie’s work on the car causes B-127 to emerge, and after coming to terms with the transformation she calls him Bumblebee (after a nest that had settled in the Volkswagen’s interior). They bond, of course, and Memo gets involved with them too, which takes the movie into “E.T.” territory, with slapstick sequences of the robot trashing the Watson home (and taking comic revenge on mean girl Tina, played by Grace Dzienny) while learning to converse, after a fashion, by using pop tunes of the period he accesses by moving through a radio dial.

Charlie’s efforts to repair the car have also released a hologram of Optimus that begins to trigger Bumblebee’s memory; unfortunately, it also serves as a beacon for two Decepticons, Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), to follow B-127 to earth, where they persuade scientist Dr. Powell (John Ortiz), a throwback to the naïve researchers of old 1950s sci-fi movies, and in turn the U.S. military establishment, to help them track him down; they say he represents a common threat. That returns the movie to “Transformers” mode, though the “E.T.” thread never entirely disappears, as Charlie, Memo, and even Otis, Sally and Ron join the battle on Bumblebee’s side. (In the end, even Burns becomes convinced that they’re right.)

That seems an odd combination, and there are other movies one could point to that bear some similarity to “Bumblebee” as well—not least last year’s bomb “Monster Truck” (not to mention Disney’s “Love Bug”). But writer Christina Hodson brings a genial sense of humor to the proceedings, and Knight uses the nostalgic thirty-year old references to nifty effect, not only in the use of pop tunes, but innumerable cultural references that viewers of a certain age will savor. The cast throw themselves into the spirit of things, with Steinfeld creating an engaging young heroine and Lendeborg an equally agreeable sidekick; in his few scenes Drucker proves an asset, too—though we didn’t need his throwing-up scene. Then there’s Cena, who once again shows that he has considerable comic chops to go along with his he-man physique.

Of course, for all its pleasures this remains a “Transformers” movie, and the protracted battle sequences have a been-there, done-that quality that makes one’s heart sink whenever they pop up. (The CGI in these scenes, moreover, is visually a bit messy. Happily, it’s better in the scenes in which only Bumblebee is involved.) There are also too many resurrection moments—when Bumblebee has apparently been killed but suddenly reawakens (“E.T.,” of course, had only one). But Enrique Chediak’s cinematography is fine, and editor Paul Rubell has kept things to a trim running-time of under two hours, a nice change from most of today’s overlong superhero entries.

By itself “Bumblebee” doesn’t justify the continuation of “Transformers” franchise—nothing could completely make up for “The Last Knight”—but it’s better than anybody had a right to expect.