Hollywood is filled with a bunch of know-it-alls who want to condescend to you constantly about history as if the events they are depicting actually happened exactly as what we see on the screen.
But they weren’t there. They simply just don’t know. And if they’re able to compartmentalize their personal liberal biases out of what they’re making – they can’t, but if they could – then maybe it wouldn’t always be such lousy pandering propaganda.
And Russell Crowe’s newest Showtime miniseries “The Loudest Voice” is a lot like the disastrous Oscar contender “Vice” in a similar way as the aforementioned.
Director Adam McKay helmed the overlong “Vice” movie starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell – about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s rise in the GOP through the years, up until the end of the George Bush Jr.’s administration.
It was a pandering condescending look at Cheney’s life with a lot of speculation as to how everything actually went down. At one point, Cheney (Bale) tells Bush Jr. (Rockwell) that he’ll be his running mate if he accepts the terms of running pretty much every major part of the federal government.
It’s an eye-rolling moment. Other than Bale’s performance, the movie practically has no redeeming qualities, but it was an Oscar contender because the Academy loves to overhype political movies.
Russell Crowe’s newest show “The Loudest Voice” debuted on Sunday night and is the story of the rise of Fox News President Roger Ailes (Crowe) and the nature of the sexual harassment accusations against him by former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson (Naomi Watts).
The reviews are mixed and the reason why is because it is almost too similar to “Vice.”
It has the same sort of condescending tone – trying to tell you about things you already know as if you’ve been living under a rock through the years. And of course they perpetuate Fox News as some sort of sinister subliminal messaging dictatorial empire.
It does have a brisk straightforward storytelling pace – even if the actions are overly biased against Fox News.
And Russell Crowe, as he usually is, delivers an excellent performance as the former Fox news president.
Like “Vice” the only redeeming quality of the show is Crowe’s performance even if he’s written to be abusive and frequently bull-headed.
At one point, a sweaty enraged Ailes screams because a pair of female co-hosts wear pants instead of leg-revealing skirts. His derangement is consistently rooted in the bizarre and superficial, but that’s the way the writers obviously wanted it.
They portray Gretchen Carlson as a woman being constantly underestimated and undermined at every turn – portraying Fox News as a culture of misogyny that went on for over a decade.
Fox News is viewed as a trashy intentionally addictive product. The theme is that America’s news leader has a devastating sociological impact on our culture.
The reviews are mixed. Some critics think it’s shocking and horrifying as if what is happening on screen was 100% exactly as it happened.
Unless the next episodes deviate drastically from the first it’s a hard pass.