Tabloid
Errol Morris turns a bizarre kidnapping scandal and its tabloid afterlife into a funny, unsettling meditation on competing versions of truth.
Overview
A bizarre tale of love, obsession, and media frenzy unfolds as one woman's quest for true love spirals into a sensational scandal.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- witty
- irreverent
- sardonic
- true crime night
- documentary discussion
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film as an engaging, smartly constructed documentary whose lively interviews expose the unstable boundary between truth, delusion, and performance, though some found it less thought-provoking than Morris’s strongest work.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Joyce McKinney, reporters, and other interviewees offer conflicting interpretations of the kidnapping case and its surrounding events.
British tabloid reporters pursue salacious details of McKinney’s life and help shape public understanding of the case.
McKinney’s elaborate self-presentation and the interviewees’ shifting accounts embody Morris’s interest in lucidity, delusion, and performance.
The manacled Mormon case, the dog-related tabloid story, and McKinney’s outsized persona produce an irreverent, strange register.
Films like Tabloid, and why
The Thin Blue Line
documentary reconstruction of contradictory testimonies, media spectacle, and uncertain truth
Capturing the Friedmans
documentary investigation shaped by competing accounts and the filmmaker’s probing interviews
The Imposter
playful true crime documentary focused on sensational publicity and unstable personal narratives
Rashomon
multiple perspectives and conflicting versions of an extraordinary case evoke Rashomon-like ambiguity
Movie Details
- Director
- Errol Morris
- Release Date
- 2011-07-15
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Rating
- 6.4 / 10 (136)
Cast
- Joyce McKinney
- Peter Tory
- Troy Williams
- Jackson Shaw
- Kent Gavin
- Jin Han Hong
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Philo, Sundance Now
- Rent
- Amazon Video
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Tabloid about?
- Errol Morris turns a bizarre kidnapping scandal and its tabloid afterlife into a funny, unsettling meditation on competing versions of truth.
- What is Tabloid like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Tabloid as brisk, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Tabloid violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Tabloid as mild.
- What did critics think of Tabloid?
- Critics broadly praised the film as an engaging, smartly constructed documentary whose lively interviews expose the unstable boundary between truth, delusion, and performance, though some found it less thought-provoking than Morris’s strongest work.
- Which films are like Tabloid?
- Films with a similar feel include The Thin Blue Line, Capturing the Friedmans, The Imposter, and Rashomon.
- How long is Tabloid?
- Tabloid runs 87 minutes.
- Where can I watch Tabloid?
- In United States, Tabloid streams on Philo, Sundance Now.
