THE LOUDEST VOICE (2019) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Kari Skogland, Jeremy Podeswa,
Scott Z. Burns, Stephen Frears
Russell Crowe, Sienna Miller, Naomi Watts,
Seth McFarlane, Annabelle Wallis, Simon McBurney,
Aleksa Palladino, Josh Stamberg, Susan Pourfar
Russell Crowe, looking convincingly fat and unhealthy, weighs in as Roger Ailes, the cut-throat, right-wing television producer who created Fox News (with Rupert Murdoch's money), turning it into the most watched cable news network in the country, operating on the stated principle that facts don't matter but ratings do. The movie covers the main events in Ailes' rise and fall - it was originally broadcast in seven parts on Showtime - and if you're looking for a handy blueprint to how fascist messaging works, you'll find it here. There's an inkling of charm about Ailes in the beginning - Crowe peering impishly over his wire-framed glasses could be playing Benjamin Franklin - but it recedes quickly, and what you're left with is a monster, equal parts ambition, paranoia, brilliance, rage, sleaze, cunning and (especially once Barack Obama steps onto the stage) bigotry. The last act, the prelude to his downfall, has Ailes using Fox to help orchestrate Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election. Ailes, Trump and millions of suckers out there tuning in and eating up every angry word: Those guys were made for each other.
