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Friday, December 16, 2011

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2011     10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Tabloid          5



Joyce McKinney in the 1960s, pictured in "Tabloid", the documentary by Errol Morris. 
IFC Films 
  

Errol Morris
, director
1 hour 28 minutes
Rated R for sexual content and nudity
(IFC Films)
July 2011
DVD (U.S., Canada)

"I don't feel I did anything wrong."

by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, December 16, 2011


As fascinating, sordid, saucy and mesmerizing as anything on the big screen in 2011, "Tabloid", directed by Errol Morris, reinforced the notion that truth is stranger than fiction, and in this spellbinding documentary Joyce McKinney, who had personally taken to task (and threatened to sue) any film critic who labeled her as odd, weird or crazy in their reviews of this film, is at the center of this cause célèbre mystery kidnapping of Kirk Anderson, a Mormon, who had been under Ms. McKinney's care and undivided attention for three days and nights in a south England cottage, apparently manacled during a wild sex marathon.  Or not.

Infamously dubbed "the case of the manacled Mormon", Ms. McKinney's love affair played out in the British tabloid papers and elsewhere in Europe like a blazing storm in the 1970s.  The press made her a celebrity, and later Ms. McKinney became even more famous for events that seem tame in comparison to those documented by Mr. Morris.  Ms. McKinney has turned up at "Tabloid" screenings and has denounced the director as a crazy, unfair, manipulative filmmaker.  She has threatened to sue Mr. Morris.

"Tabloid", a sometimes disturbing, bizarre and maniacal adventure, is always riveting and ingenious, more an artistic rendering than a standard documentary.  Mr. Morris knows that the camera can lie, and his varied participants aren't always the most reliable narrators.  Like "Capturing The Friedmans" the angles of truth are bent, and you aren't sure whom to believe in a frenzied arena of performances, whether by Ms. McKinney, Daily Mirror photographer Kent Gavin or even Mr. Morris himself. 

A spectacle that hypnotized and entertained me so thoroughly, "Tabloid" felt like a seductive serum that titillated, teased and triumphed.

Full written review here

NEXT: NUMBER 4

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