Tabloid
Tabloid follows the much stranger-than-fiction adventures of Joyce McKinney, a former “beauty queen” whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe and directly onto the front pages of the British tabloid newspapers. Joyce’s crusade for love and personal vindication, as illustrated by Morris, takes her through a surreal world of gunpoint abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modeling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions. This notorious affair is barking mad.
3.4 out of 5 based on 14 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Certificate |
15 |
| Genre |
Documentary |
| Director |
Errol Morris |
| Cast |
Joyce Bernann McKinney Kent Gavin |
| Studio |
Dogwoof |
| Release Date |
November 2011 |
| Running Time |
88 mins |
| |
Tabloid follows the much stranger-than-fiction adventures of Joyce McKinney, a former “beauty queen” whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe and directly onto the front pages of the British tabloid newspapers. Joyce’s crusade for love and personal vindication, as illustrated by Morris, takes her through a surreal world of gunpoint abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modeling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions. This notorious affair is barking mad.
Reviews
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“ A vivid picture of the way we lived then.”
10/11/2011
Read Full Review
The Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
“The thoroughly entertaining Tabloid has more on its mind than unfolding a story so astonishing that you really don't know whether to laugh or cry. Questions about the nature of reality, what it is and to what extent it is knowable, are never far from this documentary's understandable fascination with the power and price of media celebrity.”
15/07/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“Terrifically entertaining... ”
10/11/2011
Read Full Review
The Times
Wendy Ide
“In that it deals with eccentricity and obsession, Tabloid bears some similarities to Morris’s earlier film Fast Cheap & Out of Control ... Of course, the salacious story is not the main fascination for Morris — as the title suggests, what intrigued him was the media response to it, and the continuing relationship with the woman at the centre of it.”
11/11/2011
Read Full Review
Total Film
Neil Smith
“A bizarre coda turns what begins as a playful exposé of the British media’s sensationalist excesses into a surreal voyage into a warped mind no reporter could invent.”
08/11/2011
Read Full Review
The Sunday Times
Edward Porter
“With hints of tabloid values in its own make-up, the film is a rollicking human-interest story.
”
13/11/2011
Read Full Review
Empire Magazine
Patrick Peters
“[Morris] clearly finds his subject and her persecutors ghoulishly fascinating and the story faintly ridiculous. But he has surprisingly little to say about tabloid tactics or the extent to which the media reflects the society on which it reports.”
07/11/2011
Read Full Review
The Evening Standard
Derek Malcolm
“Morris suggests that you can sometimes find profundity in triviality - and though Joyce condemns herself out of her own mouth, it is always possible to feel sorry for a woman whose obsession has so totally ruled her life.”
11/11/2011
Read Full Review
The Observer
Philip French
“It's a bizarre "where are they now?" story of a rather unedifying kind, and one feels ashamed of laughing at this sad exhibitionist.
”
13/11/2011
Read Full Review
The New York Times
A. O. Scott
“Although Mr. Morris caters to our never-sated appetite for titillating tidbits ... he also offers a bit of escapism. We can turn away from the ugly spectacle of cellphone hacking and political bullying currently roiling Rupert Murdoch’s empire and revisit the once-notorious case of the “Manacled Mormon,” which long ago offered the British reading public a bit of good, clean, dirty fun. ”
14/07/2011
Read Full Review
The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“Providing a timely look at the destructive nature of chequebook journalism, [Morris] helps create some empathy for McKinney by showing how rival tabloids ruthlessly competed against one another to uncover and print the most salacious details of her story with little regard to the long-term impact it might have on those involved. ”
11/11/2011
Read Full Review
Screen
Howard Feinstein
“[Morris has] opt[ed] for very light fare in Tabloid, which eschews not only re-enactments but also any penetrating observations.”
17/09/2010
Read Full Review
The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“Morris giddies up the interview footage, which is mainly with McKinney, with pop-art-style graphics ... He hardly needs to tease confessions from McKinney, who showboats in all directions. ”
10/11/2011
Read Full Review