DVD Review: Errol Morris Continues Incredible Legacy With ‘Tabloid’

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CHICAGO – Errol Morris is not just a great “documentary” filmmaker, he’s one of the most important living directors. His work is wildly entertaining but not often give deserved credit for being as influential as any filmmaker of his generation. His latest, “Tabloid,” recently released on DVD, is another gem about a unique personality — the director’s speciality. With a bizarre blend of stories that are too ridiculous to be true, Joyce McKinney almost seems to have been designed as a Morris creation. It’s a shame that no bonus material is available for the DVD-only release, but the movie itself is a gem.

HollywoodChicago.com DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0
DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

One of the brilliant things about Morris’ work is his refusal to judge his subjects. “Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control,” “Sick,” “Mr. Death,” his TV series “First Person” — his films often feature what could politely be called “unique personalities” (and, impolitely, totally crazy). Joyce McKinney seems almost too good to be true in the Morris filmography. When Morris first read her story, he must have started planning the film about her immediately. He’s clearly drawn to stories that are too weird to be true. And, in this case, some of it may not be.

As one of Morris’ interview subjects, an expert on Mormonism, puts it, there are three possible truths in the story of Joyce McKinney. In her version of events, she travelled around the world to save the love of her life from the cult of the Mormon religion. In the eyes of many, including Scotland Yard, Joyce kidnapped a free man and used him as a sex slave for a few days. Of course, the actual truth could be somewhere in the middle.

Tabloid was released on DVD on November 1st, 2011
Tabloid was released on DVD on November 1st, 2011
Photo credit: MPI

The story of the Mormon sex slave became tabloid fodder in the U.K. with some taking the side of the charming model trying to find her true love and others basically accusing her of being totally insane. Morris just lets McKinney tell her increasingly-bizarre story (the final act tale of how Joyce became involved with the tabloid press yet again is truly amazing) and rolls his camera. Of course, there’s more to it than that. So much of the genius of what Morris does is off-screen. Ocassionally, we’ll hear him ask a question, but more often we only see the answers. And Morris asks all the right questions. Every element of “Tabloid” — the editing, the chosen interview subjects, the unheard questions he asks, the music choices, the pace — it all displays a documentarian at the top of his game. Where he’s been for years.

Synopsis:
Academy Award-winner Errol Morris (2003 Best Documentary - The Fog Of War) follows the 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 tabloid newspapers. Joyce’s crusade for love and personal vindication takes her through a surreal world of gun point abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modeling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions. Equal parts love story, film noir, brainy B-movie and demented fairy tale, Tabloid is a delirious meditation on hysteria from a filmmaker who continues to break down and blow open the documentary genre.

“Tabloid” was directed by Errol Morris and released on DVD on November 1st, 2011.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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