margot robbie

Anyone who has followed the Oscars knows that factors outside artistic integrity play into the eventual winners. Must a film or performance be great to land a nomination? Generally, yes. But the art is only part of the equation. Studio support, marketing campaigns, the past work of a nominated artist, and even the reputation of key players have a role in determining winners. Therefore, we think it’s worthwhile to toss those factors aside and talk about who deserves to win this year’s Academy Awards.  

When Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) has an existential crisis due to unrelenting thoughts of death, the appearance of cellulite, and a sudden flattening of her feet, she is forced to transition from her world into our own. We learn this when the heroin visits Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who isn’t what she used to be because her owner played with her too hard. The brutal play regimen resulted in chopped hair, a marker-tatted face, and legs bent into eternal splits.

The absurdity of the scenes is often complemented by the portrayal of the characters who are deeply flawed human beings, and only have showbusiness as an outlet. Each character’s arc shows how someone’s humanity will clash with the hungry beast that is Hollywood, and Manny’s transformation in particular illustrates this. He becomes Americanized and swallowed by the system as he falls in love with Hollywood and adopts its shallow norms, while his cultural identity is slowly eroded away. 

While Washington and Robbie put in good performances, it’s Bale’s work that really stands out in the film. His portrayal of an eccentric doctor plagued with pain and trauma from the war is compelling and provides moments of comedy throughout the film. While a lot of the movie is lighthearted in tone, there weren’t any scenes that are "laugh out loud" funny, but the script does have some dry wit to it.

The film never settles on a protagonist, and the storytelling mimics The Big Short, which was itself a poor aesthetic rip-off of the seminal movie of the decade, The Wolf of Wall Street. The screenplay relies heavily on telling instead of showing; the info-dumps pile up into a mountainous heap of superfluous details. Charlize Theron’s impressive transformation into Megyn Kelly notwithstanding, Bombshell ultimately doesn’t live up to its title because of Roach’s lack of style, perspective, and insight.