The Loudest Voice

It all seems so ridiculous until you remember we lived through it. At times, “Loudest Voice” plays like a white collar version of “The Sopranos,” as when Ailes orders his PR guy and fixer Brian Smith (Seth MacFarlane, “The Orville”) to take care of a leaker. Crowe, covered in mostly great prosthetics and looking as if he is wearing a fat suit that ate another fat suit, wheezes with every waddle and authentically underplays a human volcano.

It’s a pungent profile of a nauseating figure. ... “The Loudest Voice” sees the behind-the-scenes culture of sexual assault and the onscreen show of Barnum-ized reactionaryism as two curves of the same lens, which is trained on America and not necessarily opposed to airing anything, especially if it did strong numbers in the demo.

Thanks to a brisk pace, straightforward storytelling and a terrific central performance by Russell Crowe, “The Loudest Voice” builds up considerable steam, even when we know what’s coming.

Crowe disappears into Ailes and tries to offer some insight into what shaped him. It’s a tour-de-force, Emmy bait performance for sure. Yet Ailes remains repugnant and fairly one-dimensional.

A compelling if flawed condensation of Gabriel Sherman's book, worth watching for anyone interested in the political-media nexus where Ailes reigned.

A premiere scripted by Spotlight writer-director Tom McCarthy (also an executive producer) sets a talky, thoughtful tone for a saga that needs no embellishment. ... Crowe, a world-class bellower, only occasionally flips the switch from whispery, methodical creepiness to full-on scenery chomping. The result is an elegant mix of character study, workplace drama and political thriller.

The Loudest Voice blends West Wing-style operatics with a darker narrative about power most corrupting those who were already corrupt, and if it lacks Sorkin’s gift for whip-crack pacing, its excellent cast and dependable focus on the machinations of backroom deals keeps it fleet and engaging.

The result is a slick, well-made, engrossing, at times borderline pulp biopic, highlighted by a ferocious, screen-filling and appropriately theatrical performance by a nearly unrecognizable Russell Crowe, who all but disappears under the makeup and prosthetics and padding as the conniving, scheming, duplicitous, combative and intimidating Ailes.

Every moment of catharsis you might feel while watching The Loudest Voice comes with a massive caveat. If you consider the battle over and won, then the loudest voice in the room will keep echoing from well beyond the grave.

The series begins as full-steam-ahead entertainment, an Aaron Sorkin–ish explication of history, in which the past plays out with the buzzwords of the future. ... It’s packaged as a biopic and not some larger condemnation of “our times.” As I watched it, I kept wondering if something so relatively understated that aspires—unlike Ailes—to come across as relatively unbiased was too subtle for the world that Ailes created.

Ailes’ now-infamous skulduggery may have irrevocably damaged political discourse, but recounting it all makes for a wildly entertaining, occasionally painful, deep dive into the history of Fox News Channel and an excavation of one of the ways the current polarized American political climate came to exist.

As portrayed with ferocious bluster by Russell Crowe in an astonishing makeup transformation rivaling Christian Bale's in Vice, Ailes is shown to be a cunning glutton for power and control. ... Compelling adaptation. [24 Jun - 7 Jul 2019, p.11]

Oddly enough given the title, “The Loudest Voice” starts to feel less revealing and more salacious when it abandons nuance for loud noises. Not only is Crowe’s work more affecting during the all-too-brief moments studying Ailes’ origins, psyche, and internal motivations, but the show is, as well.

Crowe is excellent as Ailes; the actor all but disappears inside his synthetic girth, and he toggles effectively between Ailes’ avuncular charm and apoplectic rage. ... After three episodes, I found myself wishing the show had approached Ailes’ story from a different perspective, one that might offer fresh insight — Carlson’s, perhaps, or better yet, that of the mysterious gatekeeper Laterza. But The Loudest Voice isn’t really interested in learning anything from Ailes’ history — it’s simply content to repeat it.