Fair and Balanced

Dazzling performances abound in director Jay Roach's riveting, unflinching and rousing drama about the downfall of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). When demoted presenter Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) sues Ailes for sexual harassment, it throws the already on-edge workers into desperate, divisive chaos. Anchorwoman Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron, in another astonishing physical transformation) is the reluctant mole attempting to track down fellow victims, while the fictional Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) is an amalgam of all the women who found themselves alone in Ailes's office trying to avoid his sleazy overtures. Sharpened by a cut-and-thrust satirical angle with timely insights into workplace etiquette, this finely textured, fourth wall-breaking psychodrama works full-throttle as a salient, savvy, satisfying and fully believable corporate thriller.