“Bombshell” depicts, with equal parts bemusement and outrage, the explosion that occurred when the women of Fox News Channel dared to expose the culture of sexual harassment that had prevailed for so long at the cable television juggernaut.

More than a year before allegations of abuse and harassment against Harvey Weinstein would spark the #MeToo movement and crater his career, there was Roger Ailes, the fearsome TV news titan whose personal empire came crumbling down. Director Jay Roach’s film follows those fraught days during the summer of 2016, when “Fox & Friends” morning show co-host Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against the former Fox News CEO and Megyn Kelly—the network’s biggest star at that point—came forward with Ailes harassment tales of her own.

The person to pull the curtain aside and invite us in is Charlize Theron as Kelly, embodying the anchor with eerie accuracy from the first moment we see her. In no time at all, you truly feel as if you’re watching Kelly herself, and the fact that she’s doing an extended walk-and-talk to explain the inner workings of the conservative news network accomplishes a couple of crucial things right off the top. Kelly shares in conspiratorial tones who the players are, how the power structure operates and what people must do to survive—especially if they want those coveted spots on air. But by talking directly to us, much of the time with a wink and a smile, Theron also softens Kelly’s icy, rigid persona, making her more sympathetic and accessible.

Maintaining such radiant confidence becomes an increasing challenge for Kelly once Carlson (Nicole Kidman, conveying both on-air sweetness and off-air ambition) brings her lawsuit against Ailes (John Lithgow, also undergoing a significant physical transformation). (This is a great, showy role for Lithgow, giving him plenty of room to show his range as he portrays the profane, predatory and paranoid sides of the portly executive’s personality.) And as other high-profile women come forward with vocal support of Ailes, Kelly’s silence becomes even more conspicuous.

Also during the summer of 2016 – and yes, it really does feel like a lifetime ago – Donald Trump is rising to power as the Republican presidential nominee, and his trajectory is becoming intrinsically intertwined with that of his favorite TV news channel. “All Trump does is watch Fox,” says Rob Delaney as Kelly’s producer. And so Kelly’s clash with Trump as debate moderator—based on a question she asked him about his treatment of women over the years—further makes her a target and heightens the kind of scrutiny and misogyny she and so many women face when they tell their stories of abuse and harassment.