Tabloid (2010) User Reviews

A Carnation up my Nose

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 24 July 2011]

Greetings again from the darkness. Truth is often stranger than fiction. But what happens when the truth is elusive? Well "Tabloid" proves it doesn't matter ... strange is still strange! Superb documentarian Errol Morris serves up his most 'whacked out' profile yet.

Mr. Morris has described his work in documentary films as falling into one of two categories: 'Completely Whacked Out' and 'Politically Concerned'. The latter category includes his brilliant films "The Fog of War" and "The Thin Blue Line". The 'whacked' category includes "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control" and "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A Leuchter". I highly recommend any and all of these.

This latest subject, Joyce McKinney, may not be immediately familiar to you. In 1977, she became infamous as the key player in the British tabloid storyline named "Case of the Manacled Mormon". She was accused of following a Mormon missionary to the U.K., kidnapping him, handcuffing him to a bed, and using him as her sex slave. To really understand the story, one must realize the lack of knowledge that the British press had towards the Mormon church at the time. They truly viewed it as a cult.

Ms. McKinney has never stopped her accusations that the Mormon leaders created a cult environment, and brain washed men and women alike. Her stance is a huge part of why her story, or stories, are impossible to take seriously. Her story is that she and Kirk Anderson fell in love and the church forced them apart by shipping Anderson off on a missionary trip to England. Mr. Anderson has refused all interview requests since his release, but he claimed he requested the trip to escape the obsessive clutches of Joyce.

The amazing thing that I noticed while watching this film is that I didn't care about the truth. Even the filmmaker, Mr. Morris, doesn't seem to care about the truth. The fascination is with the personality of the enigmatic Joyce McKinney. Her direct interviews are mesmerizing. When she states "a person can tell a lie so many times that they believe it's true", we have to laugh outloud. Her stories are so convoluted, yet told with such conviction.

I certainly don't wish to spoil the entertainment value afforded by her first person story telling, so I will concentrate on the presentation by Mr. Morris. He seems to really enjoy the tabloid approach and uses graphics and imagery to add detail and structure. His use of the score is highly effective and quite unusual for a documentary. He provides the stage for this former Miss Wyoming to perform. And perform she does!

For comparison purposes, I have nothing. My first thought was a train wreck. Then a circus side show. Neither of those do justice to this unique story of a most unusual woman presented by a visionary filmmaker. All I can say is, you must see it to believe it ... or not.

A real tabloid story

[paul2001sw-1 · 8/10 · 22 April 2012]

Some people are serial fantastists, or serial self-publicists: it can be hard to tell the difference. Errol Morris' entertaining film 'Tabloid: Sex in Change' will seem familiar to anyone whose seen the (altogether more serious) film 'True Lies': in both cases, someone collaborates with a contemporary film-maker to tell "their story", even though the film-maker is able to simultaneously compile a large body of evidence to suggest that this story is utter tosh. The protagonists of both films could be considered con-artists, but if so, neither of them are exactly very good: in taking part in these films, they manage not to control the narrative, but to destroy themselves (although, if self-publicity is the aim, they do succeed, albeit in a peculiar fashion). Joyce McKinney's story (both the real one, and the one that she tells) is straightforwardly bizarre; while the linked tale of the behaviour of tabloid newspapers is predictably depressing, although one can't help but wonder whether or not Morris would have done better to let sleeping dogs lie (something McKinney didn't do when she had her dead pet cloned) rather than give the whole affair another publicising blast of the oxygen. It's hard to draw many conclusions from such a weird tale about the state of our society, or even about the interior workings of McKinney's mind; yet it's also impossible not to be entertained, albeit in a prurient way, by the extraordinary details of her tale.

Joyce is a breed of crazy you have to witness for yourself

[scarletheels · 6/10 · 12 December 2011]

Some stories are so preposterous and delightfully astonishing that they have to be exposed to the masses. Such is the true tale of Joyce McKinney, the former beauty queen who hired a pilot to fly her and an accomplice, Keith May, to England to rescue her boyfriend, Kirk Anderson, from the clutches of the Mormon church. After bringing him to a rented cottage in Devon, where the refrigerator was stocked full of his favorite foods, she bound and seduced him. What ensued was three days of sex, food, and fun, to be forever known as "The Case of the Manacled Mormon".

It sounds like every man's fantasy - a beautiful pageant princess waiting on you hand and foot, satisfying your every whim and fancy. However, Kirk, after reading about his own abduction in the newspaper, fled from his captors and alleged to the police a much different account of what happened. The all-American, charismatic blonde was arrested for kidnapping and raping the Mormon missionary and thrown in the slammer to await trial. The British tabloids had a field day with the bizarre incident.

The Daily Express printed Joyce's side of the story while their rival, The Daily Mirror, delved deep into Joyce's past and uncovered lurid details of her moonlighting as an S&M model and dominatrix for hire, painting her as a manipulative Jezebel that cast a spell over all of the men she met. The accusation did ring true. She often referred to Keith May as her slave and she had another admirer willing to do anything she asked. Even Peter Tory, a reporter for The Daily Express, seems to have fallen for Joyce's delusion that she was simply a girl so profoundly in love with her boyfriend, she risked life and limb in order to save and deprogram him from a cult of polygamists.

Unfortunately, Kirk Anderson declined to participate in Morris's documentary and Keith May passed away in 2004, but there is enough material to fill his absence, like Joyce's decision to travel to Seoul, South Korea to have her beloved rescue dog, Booger, cloned.

The interviews with Joyce, Jackson Shaw (the pilot), Troy Williams (a former Mormon missionary), Peter Tory, Kent Gavin (photographer for The Daily Mirror), and Dr. Hong flow smoothly, with barely any interruption by Mr. Morris. The montage of animated newspaper clippings was a visual treat and the background music fit brilliantly, which normally goes unnoticed in a documentary. The star of the show is Joyce with her animated voice and emphasized gestures. She's a breed of crazy that is sometimes unsettling, sometimes funny, and always entertaining.

What a wack-job

[chuck-526 · 27 August 2011]

This is definitely an Errol Morris documentary, firmly in the tradition he began with "Gates of Heaven". People and their stories are presented straight-ahead, with no obvious irony nor cynicism nor tongue-in-cheek. (As in his other films, Morris's irony is so subtle it can easily be missed completely.) The people and the story are so preposterous I seriously doubt anybody could have made it up.

In some ways though the film is different from the early tradition. The most obvious is that the filmmaking has grown to involve several tens of people. Although the credits list isn't a huge thing that goes on for several minutes, it's long enough to clearly indicate this wasn't a "one man with a camera" type undertaking. Another difference, progressing from "Gates of Heaven" through "The Fog of War" to "Tabloid", is the loss of the feeling that the crazy people on the screen just might -if the stars lined up exactly right- have been my neighbors.

As the events are in the past, there of course isn't a whole lot of original film footage. Mr. Morris has dug up what seems like every scrap that exists, and skillfully inter-cut it with clever graphics, newspaper excerpts, photos, bits of animation and stock footage, and memories delivered by some of the people involved. The film could have relied on recreations, but it doesn't. It could have been visually boring, but it most definitely isn't.

A handful of people are present as "talking heads", each remembering the events from their own point of view. In the beginning, all the talking heads seem to expound neutrally on the same events. Only later does it become obvious there are some profound disagreements. Although I expected each person to subtly spin their story, it caught be by surprise when eventually one talking head stated flatly that another was "crazy". A couple key people are absent, one because he died and another because he refused to participate. As one would expect , Errol Morris doesn't try to guess or recreate that missing point of view, rather he simply doesn't cover it at all. Unfortunately this seems to make the film more one-sided than it otherwise would have been.

I sometimes wished Mr. Morris had pressed just a little harder on Ms. McKinney ...but that would have changed directions to be an entirely different film. I particularly wished for a firmer time-line, as there is close to a decade (from high school to "late twenties") missing. Among other things, somewhere in that overly vague period there might be an explanation of how a former Miss Wyoming had a South Carolina accent. I also wished for some understanding of how a very bright and beautiful woman could become obsessed with people who obviously were much much dumber than her and who subscribed deeply to a completely foreign religion. I wished for a better explanation of how a stray dog found homeless at the roadside could miraculously become a very clever licensed "guide dog". And I wished for some explanation of how a single older woman who hasn't published anything was able to afford huge laboratory fees.

I can't resist commenting on the story as well as on the film:

The first thing that struck me was Ms. McKinney's skewed sense of justice. When unfairness-es --even outright frauds-- were perpetrated on her, she reacted quite strongly. But when she pulled similar tricks on the people around her, as she did for example with her disguises that went well beyond necessity, that wasn't even worth mentioning.

The second thing that struck me was this is a parable about how extremely bright people (the film states Ms. McKinney's IQ is 168) often can't fit into society (or is the problem that they never become comfortable with themselves?). She could quickly and thoroughly bamboozle virtually any individual she ever interacted with in person. But she seemed to have no clue how relatively anonymous _groups_ of people ("the press", "the paparazzi", "the church", etc.) might behave, nor how much consistency irregular yet persistent contacts might expect.

Tragic documentary

[tomgillespie2002 · 7/10 · 28 November 2011]

Errol Morris has throughout his filmmaking career, found some interesting subjects. From the groundbreaking The Thin Blue Line (1988) - that actually produced evidence enough to release a man from death row, - to The Fog of War's (2003) view of modern American political history according to Robert McNamara (reviewed here by Tom previously). And with Tabloid, he has yet again discovered a story that defies belief.

Joyce McKinney was former Miss Wyoming. She became a British tabloid darling in the late 1970's when she came over to the UK and kidnapped a young man, holding him hostage. The film tells the story of McKinney's various obsessions; she became obsessed with a young Mormon missionary, but his faith was compromised and, as far as Joyce was concerned, the Mormon church stole him away from her, taking him to England to restore his faith.

The levels of obsession are exposed progressively throughout the film. Joyce's fixation on this one person who she claims to love unconditionally is actually quite sad. She states late on in the film that there is only one love, and she loves the Mormon, and will love no other. This stubborn focus on one love has seen through to her old age, as she fills this love with a dog. The obsession of one love is also propagated in her love of her dog, that once dead, she spends thousands of dollars to get it cloned in South Korea.

As with all Morris documentaries, this is a little gem, and is never outwardly judgemental of it's subject matter. It is a tragic tale, and whilst it has been Joyce's own choice, her strong morals are quite touching. However, strip all sympathy aside, and she is simply mental!!

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Good if incomplete

[bt698nhj · 6/10 · 23 April 2021]

Like many documentaries, this one leaves gaps for the reader to fill in for himself. But very interesting story that I had not ever heard before, worth a watch.

One of Morris' lesser efforts

[bandw · 6/10 · 29 January 2012]

This is the eighth documentary I have seen by Errol Morris. His "Gates of Heaven" is my favorite, while this one is eighth on my list. The story is that of Joyce McKinney, once a Wyoming beauty queen, who (she claims) fell obsessively in love with a young Mormon man named Kirk Anderson. She was later charged with kidnapping this man and forcing him to have sex.

I can see where this might appeal to Morris; after I had seen all his interviews with McKinney, a couple of news reporters with differing views, an airline pilot, and a Salt Lake City radio host I was left with no clear idea of exactly what happened. Oddly, documenting materials from one of the newspapers disappeared and the documentation in McKinney's possession was supposedly stolen. Another person who was closely involved in the escapade was Keith May, who had since died.

Most of the movie is taken up with Miss McKinney talking at us. The only thing I found to be true for sure is that she is a real space cadet. She admits to having had acting experience and you don't know whether to believe a word she says. She claims to have an IQ of 167, but I saw no evidence that she was above average in intelligence (in fact I would think the contrary).

Some of the clips used to illustrate the dialog were pretty silly, like some stock footage of a guy ripping a phone off the wall when one of the interviewees was talking about a phone cord having been pulled out. And I found the cutesy little cartoons particularly lame. Also, I was never sure whether I was seeing original footage or reenactments. For example, Kirk Anderson was described as being a very large man, but the clips we see of him show him to be of fairly normal weight.

The biggest weakness I found was that neither Kirk Anderson not Kieth May was interviewed (Anderson declined and May was dead). So, we never got the story from the only other people closely involved. I like stories that leave some ambiguity as to what happened, but stories like this where you don't have enough information to make an informed speculation are not satisfying.

May shock, but read all about it

[StevePulaski · 9/10 · 13 November 2011]

Behind the adorable blonde hair and sweet, innocent-girl smile lies a checkered and intriguing past in Joyce McKinney's life. Errol Morris's Tabloid is one of the most mature documentaries I've ever witnessed. The documentarian who is known for making very deep and personal stories goes out of his way to shed light on a scandal that hasn't gotten much talk or publicity in recent years. But maybe that is for the best.

In 1977, a young Mormon missionary named Kirk Anderson was abducted by an unknown woman from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ewell, Surrey. A few days later, he returned claiming he was kidnapped by a woman named Joyce McKinney, a young woman who was crowned Miss Wyoming, who attempted to seduce him and rape him while he lay bounded on a bed.

McKinney was arrested, and the case was dubbed "The Mormon sex in chains case." It was shocking and absurd for the time period as well. Keep in mind that back in the 1970's, Mormonism was thought to be more of a strange cult than a religion. Society wasn't as accepting as today, and that's why people were so quick to jump over everyone involved.

When conducting interviews with numerous people, Morris doesn't dare interrupt. It's a one-setting documentary involving Errol Morris's famous "Interrotron " method. The Interrotron is where Morris places a two way mirror in front of the camera so both parties can see each others faces. It's a way of pretending the camera doesn't exist or isn't really there. This method is used to try and get more out of the person and not have the eerie feeling of being filmed while discussing.

But I don't believe Joyce McKinney or anyone else in the film really cares that they're being filmed. I think they're so flattered that they're finally telling their side of the story. Why did I call this "on of the most mature documentaries I've ever witnessed?" Because Morris doesn't incorporate any opinion or stance within the film. He doesn't even state if he believes the characters are telling the truth or not. He just wants each person to tell their side of the story the way they feel it should be told.

It's also interesting to note that the music in the documentary is so radiant and so important to the storytelling in the film. Never do we really pay attention or notice the music in a documentary, but the tonality in Tabloid is depicted strongly throughout the background music. After all, the film doesn't move around too much. It's shot in a one-setting location against a gray backdrop with the characters talking one on one with the camera.

We see montages from older films, reenactments of certain key events, and little animated tabloid pictures compiled into a creative montage to tell certain parts of the story. The film is titled "Tabloid" because Joyce McKinney began to develop into a popular figure publicized in magazines. So many stories were published about her that the truth became distorted. She states honestly and chillingly in the documentary "a person can tell a lie so many times that they believe it's true." You will definitely leave Tabloid confused and curious. We learned so much, but how much of it is true? We may never really know. I personally believe most everything brought to the table here, but then again, the lack of evidence on McKinney's part perplexes me. It is explained at the end where all the evidence went, but the believability is highly questionable.

According to Former Missionary Troy Williams, the story of the Mormon sex in chains case has been brought to light in three scenarios. Scenario one he was chloroformed, tied up, raped, and forced to be the sex slave of McKinney. Otherwise known as Kirk's side of the story. Scenario two is Joyce McKinney's side of the story where she wanted Kirk to be "free" of the Mormon's ways. So she "rescued" him from the church and they planned to run off, have kids, and life a life of peace. Scenario three is a hybrid of the two. Where Joyce and Kirk planned a life together, but somewhere along the line he refused it and backed out.

Joyce McKinney's last time in the light before this film was when she hired a Korean doctor to clone her own dog "Booger" after his death. McKinney even states in the film that she herself believes it strange that a person could go from someone who "kidnaps a Mormon man and uses him as a sex slave" to someone who hires a person to clone her own dog.

McKinney now resides in the mountain ranges of North Carolina living a life of celibacy, solitude, and peace from the people and the press. Maybe that's for the best on both parts. Here we have a woman who has spent most of her life in the spotlight for such a shady case, maybe it's time to just let her rest.

Tabloid is one of 2011's best documentaries, but the subject matter will have a lot of potential viewers looking the other way. Ignore the subject matter, just dive into the film hoping to see a very thought-provoking, well made, serious documentary made by a filmmaker who knows how to dish out a very personal story. The film's way of style and tonality is beautifully crafted, and erects one of the most shocking yet intriguing sex scandals in history.

Starring: Joyce McKinney and Troy Williams. Directed by: Errol Morris.

Holding the mirror up, but to what?

[anthonydavis26 · 6/10 · 23 September 2011]

This film was reviewed for Cambridge Filk Festival (UK) - 15 to 25 September 2011 I was not really of an age to have known about Joy(ce) McKinney at the time that she rose to prominence, but, as the former Mormon who was used in the documentary to explain various things remarked, what she said was one thing, what the Mormons said was another, and maybe what actually happened fell in the middle somewhere.

Be that as it may, it is a curiosity of this subject that The Daily Mirror says that (as a result of what happened to Mirror Group Newspapers) it no longer has much of the evidence showing that she performed sexual services (although not intercourse) for money before meeting her ideal man, and that Joy herself says that a large amount of original material that proved the contrary was stolen from a vehicle of hers. She states that the material that the Mirror used at the time was faked, whereas its photographer says that he saw the negatives and prints, and the magazines in which the images appeared.

Altogether intriguing, though nothing was as significant, for me, as the account of the cloning in South Korea of five puppies, all with sub-names from their beloved 'parent' Booger, and courtesy of some tissue from his stomach. The practitioner who had performed the procedure said that he wasn't playing God, because he wasn't creating life – well, you could have fooled me, if that's not what those five Booger replicas were…!

Great Subject

[billcr12 · 8/10 · 14 January 2012]

Errol Morris hits a home run with "Tabloid," letting the main subject, Joyce McKinney, pontificate for long stretches at a time; and Ms. McKinney never disappoints. This is a sad and compelling news story from 1977, well known in Britain as "The Manacled Mormon" case. An American Mormon missionary claimed to be abducted and raped by Ms. McKinney and what follows is a tragic but often funny documentary that is truly stranger than fiction. I can't find better adjectives(used by someone interviewed) than barking mad to describe this delusional, obsessed, and sorry figure.

The missing element is Kirk Anderson, the alleged victim and abductee, as he refused to be interviewed. Director Morris has a field day with Mormon beliefs, from magic underwear to planets ruled by deceased true believers. The Salt Lake City elders will not be pleased with this film. I highly recommend it to everyone else.

My word.

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 10 October 2012]

Back in 1977 the British press had great fun with a story concerning Joyce McKinney. A former Miss Wyoming, Miss McKinney pursued her boyfriend to the UK, kidnapped him, and proceeded to try to de-programme him for the Mormon Church by way of chaining him to a bed and inflicting a week of sex on him. He turned out to take exception to this, and Miss McKinney went to court.

This film revisits the story, principally by way of giving over centre stage to Miss McKinney to tell her story, interposed with contributions from other participants (though not the victim, who declined to participate), contemporary clips and images etc. Miss McKinney is an engaging and intelligent speaker, though effusive to the point of verbal incontinence. She gives every impression of believing every word of her incredible narrative.

I found her story much more difficult to credit, however, and when I use the word "incredible" I use it in its literal sense - "not believable." Every viewer is, of course, going to form their own conclusion, but I am inclined towards the newspaper man who regards her as barking mad - at the very least, she seems unable to recognise the contradictions inherent in her own story.

This unusual documentary is entertaining though somewhat worrying, and with an underlying sadness to it.

Wild

[gavin6942 · 8/10 · 5 August 2013]

A documentary on a former Miss Wyoming (Joyce Bernann McKinney) who is charged with abducting and imprisoning a young Mormon Missionary (Kirk Anderson).

The film becomes the story: In November of 2011, Joyce McKinney filed a lawsuit against director Errol Morris. Filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, McKinney claims that Morris and his producer Mark Lipson told her they were filming for a TV documentary series about the paparazzi. McKinney is suing on the grounds that she was defamed as the film portrays her as "crazy, a sex offender, an S&M prostitute, and/or a rapist."

McKinney probably only helped the film with her lawsuit, if she had any effect at all. I do not feel they in any way defamed her, as they were merely reporting on the story and gave her ample time to give her version of events. A viewer is not left with any definite vision of who McKinney is or was.

Further, I am confused how she thought this was solely about the paparazzi. I understand that she talks of being hounded, but she also talks at length about the Mormon case, her cloned dog and any other thing. Even if this went on a TV program about paparazzi, they would have to explain to audiences who she was. So by cooperating -- regardless of the focus -- she was the one bringing herself back into the public light.

Man...

[staciarose20 · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

Mormons are ******* crazy, whether you believe her or not. He probably did lead her on. Is she unstable? Maybe. One thing's for sure. It's a cult!

Giving Miss McKinney exactly what she wants....

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 11 August 2013]

"Tabloid" is a film about Joyce McKinney--an ex-beauty queen who drew international attention when she was arrested in the UK for kidnapping her ex-boyfriend and supposedly forcing him to have sex with her. While some of the details are fuzzy and open to various interpretations, the bottom line is that McKinney escaped from custody and the case was eventually dropped. Part of the film chronicles this but the bulk of it simply consists of McKinney talking about the case and herself (and MOSTLY herself) in the decades following this weird incident. Much of the time, McKinney talks about how tabloids and the Mormons have destroyed her life. All I could CLEARLY see was that this lady seemed to love having the spotlight on her once again.

In the past, I have enjoyed Errol Morris' documentaries and really respected them. However, with "Tabloid", it sure seems like Morris has taken a huge step backward when it comes to his Oscar-winning reputation. Not only has he made a film that had a lot of flaws, but it gave a HUGE platform for a very dysfunctional woman*--a woman who ate up all the attention that was heaped on her for all the wrong reasons. By this same standard, you could also make documentaries with the help of various murderers, pedophiles and the like--many would LOVE the attention but you also wonder about the morality of letting these leaches have this platform. What about all the people they'd hurt? Isn't it rather insensitive to their victims as well as doing society a disservice to make such films?! And, if this lady is NOT evil and wasn't involved in an actual kidnapping, then why make a film where it seems designed to get people to laugh at her and her pathetic life?! Either angle seems very wrong--especially since McKinney seemed to have severe personality disorders.

*She seems to have a Borderline Personality with Narcissistic and Dependent features--based on my own experiencing working as a psychotherapist--and as such, really was rife to be exploited by Morris because of her pathological need for attention. However, without conducting an exhaustive interview, this is only a best guess. Regardless, she is NOT a healthy person and someone who you would want to encourage or exploit.

1hr 35mins in the company of a looney

[bob_bear · 28 March 2012]

By the last quarter of this turgid, unremitting virtual-monologue, I was in fear of losing my own marbles -- Joyce having clearly lost hers long ago. Pointing a camera at someone and letting them damn themselves with their own deluded waffle is not my idea of effective film making. Completely lacking in visual impact, this "film" might as well have been done on radio.

The supporting cast of tabloid creeps interviewed herein are enough to make one's skin crawl. Exploiting a crazy lady is neither funny nor clever so quite why the guy from The Daily Mirror appeared to be so proud of his machinations is beyond me.

I'd hoped for some deeper insight. I didn't get any. Only denial and madness. On this showing the woman needed to be sectioned. Too late now though. Far too late.

Crazy true story

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 3 August 2014]

Joyce McKinney grew up in small town North Carolina. She's smart. She's a former Miss Wyoming. When she moved to Utah, she falls for Kirk Anderson and becomes obsessed with him. He's a Mormon which Joyce considers a cult. She claims that the Mormon church had abducted her fiancé Kirk and sent to England. She, accomplices Keith Joseph May and Gil Parker hire pilot Jackson Shaw to fly to England to rescue Kirk Anderson. Gil and Jackson back out but Joyce and Keith abduct Kirk for three days of sex and fun. They go back to London to get marry. Kirk reads about his own kidnapping. He leaves Joyce and tells the police about the kidnapping. In 1977, he becomes the Manacled Mormon and tabloid fodder after Joyce is charged with abducting and imprisoning Kirk.

It's too strange to be true. Director Errol Morris has his classic off-camera voice asking the questions. It's a fascinating true story that the tabloids rightly printed. A couple of things do hold it back slightly. In the end, this is a small story and it's hard to dig deeper than what Joyce allows us to know. This movie needs to have Kirk because he's the only person to counter what she's saying. Is she crazy or is she in love? That's the central question. Maybe she's a bit of both. The story is funny and insane but it's essentially a light weight story.

Tabloid

[btreakle · 7/10 · 9 April 2020]

Joyce McKinney played yourself in this tabloid documentary film about her abducting her Mormon partner of England. it was okay

Fascinating fiction

[utjzz · 7/10 · 3 June 2023]

There may be little truth in the story but truth be damned because this film is a hoot.

Egocentrism, eager interviewees, unsexy sexy scenarios and a heap of wildly misleading Mormon branding fills a runtime that flies by like an exiting season finale might.

But that's the thing... "Tabloid" gets as much wrong about the Mormons as it does right, even considering the era. Additionally, it never feels like we're supposed to treat the story or details provided by the interviewees seriously, which is a shame because that may have strengthened the narrative or in the least bit created an even deeper level of an "unreliable narrator" trope. And the incessant fawning over McKinney grows more than a little tiresome by the third act, particularly because she's the one doing most of it; it's less Tiger King and more Betty Broderick, sans steely scene chewing by Meredith Baxter. It's this last issue that leaves me feeling as if the tone isn't set but the expectation is to either buy in or at least mostly do so...and that's fine, just not as good as what could have been, I think.

But regardless, it's still a raucous time; not Morris' best but perhaps his most entertaining. It's a unique documentary and it's far more compelling than the majority of canned, banal fare Netflix and the ilk seem to be spewing out weekly at this point.

Simply put, it's worth the watch; just don't take any of it as gospel, pun intended.

An original character

[mingsphinx · 8/10 · 24 February 2015]

Even if you know all the lurid details about the Joyce McKinney sex in chains saga, it is still well worth it to listen to the protagonist tell her side of the story. It would have taken a lot of courage/narcissism for anyone to agree to be interviewed for a documentary after going through what Ms. McKinney went through, but what is even more astounding is just how self assured and confident she was throughout the interview.

Ms. McKinney acquitted herself well and leaves the viewer with a sense of her human frailties as she tells the story of her remarkable life. There are those who would condemn her or write her off as sick and demented -- and even in this documentary it is possible to see where these people are coming from -- but the film also presents another side of the woman, one who loved absolutely so much so that she thought nothing of cloning a dog she cared about.

There will probably never be another Joyce McKinney. If you wrote a movie script that was true to her life, it would probably be rejected as too far fetched and absurd. Watch this documentary and judge for yourself what sort of person Joyce McKinney is. I think that is all she would ask of you.

This is Tabloid- Everyone gets something. Love, drama, thriller, sex, mistrey and what not.

[payalkhurana-84761 · 7/10 · 18 May 2020]

Title- tabloid justified the film. Main character- Joicey is quite interesting. From her dramatic expressions to her emotional stories. She is the one who binds this film together. At times as a woman you empathize her. At times other characters of this documentary take over the narrative. I believe at the end, everyone has their favourites. Besides story, the director choose complementing visuals quite carefully. It included animation, stock footages, newspaper clippings, cartoon videos and what not. Which made this film thoroughly entertaining. The story in it self is quite interesting. A woman who kidnapped and raped love of her life. And then press and tabloid journalist bashed her character.

The gener is not quite new. But, the way the director has kept us engaged with the film. Is quite a thing.

Absolutely delightful

[schanen · 10/10 · 25 September 2010]

I saw this at the Telluride film festival and thought it was truly wonderful and to know this is a true story made it even more fun. I got tickled about 10 minutes into the film and did not stop laughing until the end.....actually after the end, because our group would throw quotes from the movie back and forth between us to instigate a laugh by all. I can't wait to see it again- and buy it so I can catch the nuances of the cartooning.

The orchestration of this 'documentary' is done in such a brilliant manner that it was a hit with everyone I spoke to in line at the festival. Even those who do not like reality TV (like myself), thought this was just worlds of fun.

Watch it

[mistresspix · 9/10 · 7 March 2019]

Trust me. Watch this movie. Grab some popcorn and get ready for a good time.

One of Morris' More Confusing Documentaries Despite Compelling Subject

[classicalsteve · 5/10 · 5 March 2015]

The subject of this documentary is a good one: In Britain in 1977, a Mormon missionary name of Kirk Anderson accused Joyce McKinney, a model and former Miss Wyoming World, of abducting and raping him. Both were Americans. Why were two Americans in Britain? According to McKinney, they were engaged to marry in the States when suddenly Anderson disappeared. McKinney hired a private detective who discovered Anderson, a Mormon, had been sent on missionary work in the UK. McKinney flew to the UK to find him. They did meet each other again and engaged in a sexual encounter, which they both agree on. However, the nature of that encounter is disputed by both sides. McKinney claims it was consensual while Anderson holds it was kidnapping and rape. Not a bad subject.

Unfortunately, in Morris' hands, the documentary doesn't work as well as it should. Morris doesn't like to use narrators for his documentaries, which is effective for certain subjects, like "The Unknown Known" in which Donald Rumsfeld is essentially his own narrator, while for other subjects, it's inadequate. Unfortunately, the lack of a narrator is rather ineffectual in "Tabloid" as I found much of the material confusing. This is not an easy case to understand if you've never heard of it, as I had not until I saw the documentary.

When the case entered into the public consciousness, it became a media frenzy. It had everything the tabloids live to publish: celebrity, sex, bondage, and religion. In terms of the documentary, there were moments when I wanted to know more about the bare facts, not just some of the interviewees trying desperately to decide what they thought about it. Sometimes the interviews offer the facts but in long-winded and/or convoluted verbiage making it difficult to glean what was understood about the case. At one point in the story, McKinney was being exploited in the tabloids in fetish-like garb with a male as her slave. I couldn't understand if her "slave" was Anderson or someone else. And when was she released from prison? I read online she jumped bail in the UK, but I wasn't sure the ordering of events.

This was disappointing as I wanted to understand better this case. For those documentaries where "let the interviewees tell the story" sans narrator, the film risks being enigmatic and confusing. I still believe the most effective documentaries are those which juxtapose narration and interview in which we get the best of both worlds. This was clearly a case when a narrator would have been very helpful. But I'm sure Morris will always stick to the way he does things.

So bonkers it has to be true!

[TheSquiss · 8/10 · 16 June 2012]

It's thoroughly enjoyable, it's funny, it induces gasps and a couple of burst-out-loud guffaws, it's mildly shocking (or may induce apoplexy if one lives in puritanical solitude), it's definitely eye-opening and undeniably enthralling, but the overall madness of the subject is tinted with sadness and a little horror of the human, rather than the Richard Laymon fantasy, variety.

So what is it about? It's a story of love, kidnapping, sex, dogs, fake guns and Mormons through the eyes of the tabloids and the players involved, the principal player being Joyce McKinney, a woman who enjoys her own brand of reality.

In 1977, Mckinney hit the British headlines when she allegedly kidnapped a Mormon priest in England, chained him to a bed in a Cornish cottage and raped him repeatedly over the next three days. Her story is rather different and involves liberating her brainwashed fiancée from the clutches of the evil Mormons and helping him through his guilt with cinnamon backrubs and passionate lovemaking. There's sufficient ambiguity to suggest that neither story is entirely true but after about thirty minutes, I knew what I hoped the truth was.

And then came The Daily Mirror's 'revelations' about McKinney's history… Oscar winning director, Errol Morris, delivers a documentary filled with bizarre revelations, a quagmire of lies and half-truths and a sprinkling of harsh realities to amuse and bemuse. As the story unfolds he stitches scenes together with crudely animated montages using photos and news clippings to emphasize the ludicrous nature of the saga. And just when you think you've got a handle on it, up pops another nugget of lunacy.

Tabloid digs deep to expose a corner of the mesmerising world inhabited by a woman described by contributor Peter Tory as "barking mad." Go on, you know you want to.

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Front page stuff

[hte-trasme · 9/10 · 7 June 2014]

The story told (or approached, or retold in varying ways) in "Tabloid" is an extraordinarily salacious one, and riveting on that level in the way that extraordinarily salacious stories are. We're watching because we want desperately to see what happens next, but as we do so we are acutely aware of the sensational nature of the events.

Which is why it is appropriate that "Tabloid" is as much about the tabloid exploitation and exaggeration of the Joyce McKinney story as it is about the story itself. After one-larger-than-life event, the press becomes as much as part of the story as what it is they are covering. And as the interview subjects tell the story, it becomes apparent that rarely has the inherent subjectivity of events been laid out with such wildly (in every sense) versions of events.

It's a credit to Morris that he draws from this story that is so outlandish as to be almost absurd a thoughtful commentary on truth, will, privacy, love vs obsession, and more. At the center of it is the extraordinary interview with McKinney herself, who comes across -- then and now -- as charismatic, funny, obsessed, and more than a little unhinged. Smiling ingratiatingly as she explains (or explains away) every step of her life from (allegedly) the woman who brought her dog to her every modeling shoot to the woman who flew to Korea to have another dog cloned (disguising herself as an Indian and a deaf-mute somewhere in between), she is compulsive viewing.

"Tabloid" pulls of the coup of being completely fascinating for the reasons that tabloids are and -- because it is completely self-aware in the regard -- being also a very thoughtful meditation on the issues raised by both press sensationalism and this story itself. Quite an accomplishment.