91% Tabloid

All Critics (90) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (82) | Rotten (8)

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Tabloid, Errol Morris' latest wild and woolly portrait of human self-delusion, is a scandal-sheet dream come to life.

On first look, Errol Morris' documentary appears to tell McKinney's story, drawing from the story reported by British tabloids in 1977. But it's also about truth and storytelling more broadly, the ways stories escape their tellers.

If "Tabloid" feels like a minor Morris work compared to "The Fog of War" or "Mr. Death," it is still entertaining, with a sly sense of humor and an empathetic eye for the bizarre that harkens back to earlier movies like "Gates of Heaven."

You may see -- and perhaps already have seen -- better documentaries this year than Errol Morris' Tabloid, but I doubt you'll see a more entertaining one.

Tabloid is a nice commentary on [Errol Morris'] particular style of 'truth-telling' and objectivity. In the end, we're all lying simply by telling our version of the truth.

Morris has found a real character in McKinney, but to what end, I couldn't say.

"Tabloid" is tantalizing, but like yesterday's headlines, it's a fleeting flirtation.

It's a titillating yarn told with verve, but it doesn't shed much light on how tabloids create and encourage such stories, nor does it, finally, tell us much about human nature -- other than, perhaps, to illustrate an extreme case of it.

The celebrated filmmaker has created a meta-tabloid of sorts, surrendering to the idea that the truth is absurdly unknowable.

Morris compellingly unfolds the story and clearly means for us to see our own untoward qualities writ large in Joyce and the circus surrounding her.

Fascinating, whimsically humorous and poignant, all at once.

In addition to his admirable qualities, Morris also seems to find his subject to be hilarious. And she is.

a magnificently unsettling and funny-sad portrait of the arguably sick relationships that are forged between celebrities, the media, and their audiences

The film around [Joyce] McKinney isn't quite sure of what it's about, at times... but McKinney herself is the sort of arresting figure that you don't shake easily.

Errol Morris succeeds against all odds in besting his previous Olympians of quirkiness.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tabloid_2010/

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