Rolling Stone - USA (2019-07)

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+++++Classic | ++++Excellent | +++Good | ++Fair | +Poor July 2019 | Rolling Stone | 91

LICENSE TO AILES

The Loudest Voice charts Fox News CEO Roger Ailes’ rise and

fall — and exists mainly to win Russell Crowe an Emmy

C

REDIT WHERE

credit is due: The

Loudest Voice,

Showtime’s seven-part

miniseries about the rise

and fall of Fox News chair-

man and alleged chronic

sexual harasser Roger

Ailes, is dedicated to living

up to its name. From

the moment that Russell

Crowe’s jowly, handsy ver-

sion of the political consul-

tant-turned-conservative

kingmaker shows up in a

diner, predicting how his

epitaph will read — “right-

wing, paranoid, fat” — you

have the distinct feeling

you are being yelled at.

And not just by the Oscar-

winning actor, though

he does unleash hell via

a variety of high-volume

bellows, blowups, scream-

ing temper tantrums and

a tyrannical 4 a.m. “pep

talk” to his troops. It feels

like this adaptation of

Gabriel Sherman’s 2014

book is constantly inches

away from your face, wav-

ing its finger as spittle flies

from its frothing mouth.

It’s a deafening screed

of a series. That doesn’t,

however, mean it’s an

insightful one.

Like Citizen Kane, this

biodrama starts with its

main character’s death;

NEW

THIS

MONTH

Thanks to the

streaming era,

summer is no

longer dead for

TV. Here, four

shows we can’t

wait to see

PREVIEW

STRANGER THINGS

Netflix, July 4th

For Season Three, the Duffer

brothers’ love letter to Eighties

horror shifts the action from

Halloween to Independence Day,

a move that could give the entire

series a welcome jolt.

VERONICA MARS

Hulu, July 26th

Kristen Bell reprises the role that

made her a star — and by all

accounts, the new series will

steer back into the film-noir mode

that worked so well back in the

UPN days. Enjoy, marshmallows!

PENNYWORTH

Epix, July 28th

Curious what Alfred Pennyworth

did before becoming Batman’s

butler? This show follows Young

Alfred (Jack Bannon) during

his days as a British soldier and

security-company founder.

FOUR WEDDINGS

AND A FUNERAL

Hulu, July 31st

Rom-com fanatic Mindy Kaling

and Mindy Project co-creator

Matt Warburton craft a miniseries

inspired by a giant of the genre,

the 1994 Hugh Grant classic.

the sound of pundits

chattering away in the

background is its equiv-

alent of a Rosebud. We

flash back to 1995, when

Ailes was dismissed from

CNBC regarding a Human

Resources investigation.

(This is called foreshad-

owing.) Luckily, this frees

the media macher to give

Rupert Murdoch (theater

legend Simon McBurney,

all reptilian watchfulness)

a 24-hour infotainment

channel to rival CNN. But

Ailes refuses to do just

another “Clinton News

Network.” He wants to

give conservatives their

own platform and the

public a constant stream

of fear and loathing.

“People don’t want to

be informed,” he says.

“People want to feel

informed.”

The Loudest Voice fol-

lows Ailes as he assembles

a murderer’s row of talent

and behind-the-scenes

players, including PR

exec/henchman Brian

Lewis (Family Guy’s Seth

MacFarlane) and a shock

jock named Sean Hannity

(Patch Darragh). He brings

on Laurie Luhn (Anna-

belle Wallis) as a booker

before coercing and then

blackmailing her into

performing sexual favors;

soon, she’s a walking,

PTSD-stricken embod-

iment of how this man

turned everything into a

power play. It highlights

his vulgarity (“Who or-

dered the pussy masala?”

he snickers after interview-

ing a female Indian candi-

date) and extreme para-

noia. It shows us how his

wife, Beth (Sienna Miller),

matched his Machiavellian

streak, if not his appetites.

And it demonstrates how,

after 9/11, Ailes began to

beat the war drums louder

for Bush II. He also takes

on a more populist bent.

It starts with an insis-

tence that a presidential

candidate be referred to as

“Barack Hussein Obama.”

It peaks when a certain re-

ality-TV celebrity starts to

appear more regularly on

the walls of TV monitors.

The Loudest

Voice

NETWORK Showtime

AIR DATE June 30th,

10 p.m.

STARRING Russell Crowe

Naomi Watts

Seth MacFarlane

Sienna Miller

@

By the time Ailes’ bête

noire shows up in the

form of Gretchen Carlson

(Naomi Watts at her most

brittle), we’ve already

been battered by a lot of

amped-up bad behavior

and obvious signposts

regarding the decline of

civilized discourse. In

the spirit of its subject,

subtlety is not on the

menu. It’s all frontal

assault. If The Loudest

Voice can’t impress you,

it will damn well steamroll

you into submission.

The problem, aside

from the pleasure of

watching celebrities

impersonate famous

Fox personalities, is

that there’s not a lot

of takeaway past the

car-wreck fascination of

witnessing one horri-

ble man ruin lives and

livelihoods. It’s a lot of

sound and fury signifying

one thing only, glazed

with a tabloid patina of

power, corruption and

perversity. Better to view

this as a star vehicle for

Crowe, who digs into

this grotesque role with

gusto. No amount of

fat-suit prosthetics can

keep him from reaching

phone-throwing levels of

rage and channeling top-

shelf rancor. If the idea

is to glean lessons and

drama from Ailes’ story,

The Loudest Voice is a bust.

If the idea is to win Crowe

an Emmy, however, you

can call this a fair and bal-

anced success. DAVID FEAR

Above:

Crowe and

McBurney

launch a

network.

Right: Naomi

Watts as

Gretchen

Carlson.

Bannon

earns a medal.

Millie

Bobby

Brown and

the gang

Bell’s

on the

case.

Rebecca

Rittenhouse,

Nathalie

Emmanuel