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Tabloid (2010)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 113
Fresh: 103 | Rotten: 10

It's far from his most thought-provoking work, but Tabloid finds Errol Morris as smart, spirited, and engaging as ever.

97

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 1

It's far from his most thought-provoking work, but Tabloid finds Errol Morris as smart, spirited, and engaging as ever.

audience

77

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 10,008

My Rating

Movie Info

Thirty years before the antics of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears were regular gossip fodder, Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney made her mark as a tabloid staple ne plus ultra. Morris follows the salacious adventures of this beauty queen with an IQ of 168 whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe, into jail, and onto the front page. Joyce's labyrinthine crusade for love takes her through a surreal world of kidnapping, manacled Mormons, risqué photography, magic

R, 1 hr. 27 min.

Documentary, Special Interest

Nov 1, 2011

$0.7M

IFC Films

Cast

All Critics (114) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (104) | Rotten (10) | DVD (3)

Operates as both an examination of the dominating media mentality at the time and an embodiment of it, no less keen on delving into the juicy details now as tabloid rags were then.

November 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comment
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In Joyce McKinney, Morris has found a fittingly weird and funny muse.

September 6, 2011 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Errol Morris is a genius, a gifted documentarian who has made better movies than "Tabloid," but none so entertaining.

August 11, 2011 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Though the events Tabloid recounts took place in the pre-digital age, the film also functions as a kind of prehistory of modern celebrity culture and tabloid journalism.

July 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Morris's subject is sexual fantasy and a particular kind of American stupidity-the ability to substitute self-justification for self-knowledge. His tone is merry.

July 24, 2011 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It is quite simply one of the craziest stories ever told, made all the crazier by the fact that it's true. Or at least some version of it is true.

July 22, 2011 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tabloid is a haunting portrait of a not-so-everyday media casualty.

December 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Morris gets to have his cake and eat it.

November 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Scotsman | Comment

It's a bizarre "where are they now?" story of a rather unedifying kind, and one feels ashamed of laughing at this sad exhibitionist.

November 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comment
Observer [UK]

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.

November 11, 2011 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

A vivid picture of the way we lived then.

November 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

McKinney is no Robert McNamara, but there are lessons to be learned from this fog of sleaze.

November 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Little White Lies | Comment
Little White Lies

Morris's doc is less about What Really Happened than exploring the lifespan of one of those stories that kept on giving.

November 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

[Morris] tells us nothing about the prurience and gutter morality of the tabloid newspaper industry that Britons haven't heard every day and that the world, in the Murdochgate era, is now hearing likewise.

November 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Financial Times | Comment
Financial Times

Compelling, weird and queasy documentary on the eccentric Joyce McKinney and her stranger-than-fiction story.

November 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A truly bizarre tale, Tabloid is enjoyable but not as compelling as some of Morris' previous documentaries...

November 9, 2011 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

This is a lighter, less significant work than his 'Standard Operating Procedure' or 'The Fog of War', but it's engrossing and pleasingly slippery with the facts.

November 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

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.

November 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

A compelling story told with Morris's usual flair.

November 6, 2011 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Tabloid is such a mirthful, fascinating and fantastically entertaining documentary that you can't help but get caught up in all the sordid fun

October 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Cut Print Review | Comment
Cut Print Review

McKinney is mesmerizing: the vain, expressive, motormouthed star of an elaborately structured drama of self that qualifies as one of the more astonishing first-person cinematic tours de force since 'Eddie Murphy Raw.'

October 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | Comment
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

...fairly lightweight. But it's nevertheless one of the most entertaining movies that will hit theaters this year.

October 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A lot of fun; Morris himself is clearly unconvinced about Joyce -- and no wonder -- but she's a funny woman and hers is a ripping yarn if ever there was one.

September 21, 2011 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment
At the Movies (Australia)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Tabloid

One of the most bizzare, unpredictable, and entertaining documentaries that I've seen. You have to see this one to believe it, and then you can make your own mind up about what really happened.

July 15, 2011
lewiskendell

Super Reviewer

How Morris finds these people is beyond me. However, he manages again to tell an incredibly bizarre story through the mouths and pictures of the odd players involved. He doesn't seek to understand these people, he more or less just presents the fiction that they weave. It is a unique approach, and can be annoying if

January 5, 2012
axadntpron
Reid Volk

Super Reviewer

    1. Joyce McKinney: Worms crawl out of the woodwork when you become famous.
    – Submitted by Chris P (7 months ago)
    1. Joyce McKinney: It's like putting a marshmallow in a parking meter.
    – Submitted by Chris P (7 months ago)

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