Tabloid
Sundance Selects | Release Date: July 15, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 14, 2011
It is a spellbinding enigma, and one of the damnedest films Morris has ever made. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 13, 2011
At 88 minutes, Tabloid is short and sweet (it's pure movie candy), but by the end we've forged an emotional connection to Joyce McKinney at the deep core of her unapologetic fearless/nutty valor. And that's what really makes a great tabloid story: It's a vortex that's also a mirror. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJul 14, 2011
McKinney may well be a madwoman, but Morris connects so deeply to her obsessions that the film's tone never seems exploitative or mocking. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 11, 2011
For much of the movie Morris simply lets the loquacious McKinney talk, and she never, ever stops. And she never disappoints. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 15, 2011
This story about Joyce McKinney, a one-time beauty queen who found herself not once but twice at the center of outrageous, tabloid-friendly news stories, is another of Morris' alternately hilarious and disturbing inquiries into the slippery nature of truth. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 21, 2011
There's nothing mean-spirited, or judgmental, about the way Morris goes about his business - he must have been kicking himself with glee as one bizarre strand of the story unravels to reveal the next. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 14, 2011
McKinney, a woman whose spellbinding and baffling presence - nay, performance - in Tabloid more than lives up to her recent off-screen antics. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 14, 2011
One of Morris' swiftest works, yet also one of his saddest, Tabloid reveals among other things what happens when one person's definition of ordinary healthy romance is undone by another's. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 12, 2011
The result is not a major work, but still a wildly funny portrait that succeeds at inducing the incredulity Morris always seeks out. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensJul 14, 2011
Tabloid is the perfect movie for that night when you can't decide whether to see something low- or highbrow. It's seamlessly and satisfyingly both. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 14, 2011
The sheer heterogeneity of human experience is one of his (Morris) enduring preoccupations, and he has found, once again, an impossible and perfect embodiment of just how curious our species can be. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJul 14, 2011
Morris's trademark device of superimposing giant type over his talking heads - Willing! Manacled Mormon! - often made me wonder if Morris were exposing the world of tabloid journalism or participating in it. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoJul 13, 2011
Gripping, offensive and bewildering, Tabloid is a mean-spirited masterpiece. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreSep 14, 2011
"It was a perfect tabloid story," the Brit Peter Tory, who covered it, remembers. "Kinky sex, religion, kidnapping, a beauty queen." Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 5, 2011
There are three sides to most love stories: his, hers and the truth. But on London's Fleet Street, the three sides are his, hers and the tabloids'. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 20, 2011
The humor - and there's enough of it that Tabloid could be categorized as a comedy - is unforced, arising as it does out of these truth-is-stranger-than-fiction circumstances. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 14, 2011
Morris is a storyteller of the highest order, and within seconds, he draws us into his subject, doling out details, making us wonder what will happen next and dropping bombs for maximum impact. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 14, 2011
It's a guaranteed good time at the movies. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJul 11, 2011
A slick, entertaining offering, playing at times like a tarted up "E! True Hollywood Story." Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 18, 2011
The joke buried in Tabloid is that this sexual obsessive is very likely not a sexual person at all. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJul 16, 2011
It's an amusing enough story, all right, and it adequately fills up Tabloid's 88 minutes - but a minute longer would have been too much. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsJul 15, 2011
Tabloid spins a heck of a yarn, while implicitly warning viewers not to be so entertained that they believe every gamy detail. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 14, 2011
Errol Morris's documentary was made, and scheduled for release, long before the News of the World story broke. The smart part is that the film dissects those excesses deftly with a quasitabloid style of its own. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissJul 14, 2011
Plays like a vacation at a seedy seaside resort. The issue at hand - whether McKinney engaged in criminal behavior with Anderson - is of little moment; what's important is the personality of the lady in question. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. HobermanJul 12, 2011
Absurd as it sounds, Joyce's conviction is not only convincing but contagious. So, too, is her elastic sense of reality - a 90-minute immersion in her world is enough to make you question your own. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 11, 2011
Errol Morris' Tabloid is bonkers in all the best possible ways -- a welcome return to perverse portraiture after a lengthy sojourn in the realm of more serious-minded subjects. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 11, 2011
Tabloid is candy for voyeurs. We laugh like mad at a nut whose only mistake was being born in the last century, too early to have made real money. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberJul 10, 2011
Morris clearly invested so much time and energy in McKinney's story because he saw her as emblematic of our crazed times. Others might wonder whether the sad saga deserves quite this much attention, but there's no denying the film's morbid fascination. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn LevyAug 4, 2011
Lots of people have crazy stuff happen to them once or twice. Some people are magnets for crazy stuff. And then there's Joyce McKinney, who is like a factory where magnets for crazy stuff are made and warehoused. Read full review
60
EmpirePatrick PetersNov 7, 2011
A compelling story told with Morris's usually flair. Still, hard not to think of it as a disappointment by the director's exalted standards and a missed opportunity to explore society's dysfunctional relationship with its media. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 15, 2011
It's all compelling, in the way reading trashy gossip usually is. But without any new perspectives, what's the point? Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 12, 2011
Unlike a great Morris film such as "Gates of Heaven" or "Mr. Death," where the quirks of character feel connected to a larger, profoundly insightful vision of humanity, Tabloid never gets beyond its idiosyncratic surface. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 4, 2011
Morris has found a real character in McKinney, but to what end, I couldn't say. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJul 15, 2011
The documentary Tabloid shows that an oddball lead character and a smirky style do not necessarily add up to a complete movie. Read full review
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