Tabloid

I see a lot of reviews calling her mentally ill or mad. I don't see an individual with mental illness. I do see eccentric, narcissistic, fun/adventerous (in her Hay Day), big heart for animals and a mormon named Kirk. Who is she hurting? Well the possible rape/sexual assualt (for you snowflakes out there) could be questionable. Without his side, we will never know. But as one of the docu speakers, a mormon member and answer all things Mormon, best said it.. There is her story, there is the story that could possibly be Kirk's but definitely the Mormon's side, and probably the truth in the middle! That says it all. She's telling her story her way...with no input from the "injured" party, i.e. Kirk, we have only her side. I thought she was fun, dramatic, seemingly naive (though that's kind of questionable, what with her being a self professed artist in drama/acting), eccentric, quirky most definite. Fun docu all around. I actually like who she's become and her ability to tell a story, regardless if it's real.

I love this film about Joyce McKinney and her story. Errol Morris seeks to find truth but in the end we are still left not quite sure who or what to believe. I found myself telling everyone who would listen to watch this film after I saw it because I wanted people to talk to about it. I researched the story and McKiney's response to the film. Morris has such great access to his subjects and I would recommend this to those who enjoy a really juicy story such as this one.

There were two smaller documentaries inside this hash -- either one would probably have been better alone. They both purport to tell the story of a young North Carolina woman, Joyce McKinney, who fell in love with a Mormon missionary, pursued him to the U.K. in 1977, and with the help of friends kidnapped him and put on a full-bore sex offensive in a remote cottage in order to secure his love and free him from Mormon "training." Other documentaries I've seen by Errol Morris had more respect for their topic, I feel. Even VERNON, FLORIDA, whose citizens and ambience go from weird to a kind of transcendental weird, stayed with the mood of that quiet and isolated small town and let town citizens, abetted by the camera, speak for themelves. TABLOID was about half that, about half Michael Moore kneejerk irony (as the central figure reminisces about her teenage years, a clip of a strutting majorette is shown). The problem with this injected camp is that it tends to drag us away from the subject. After the film was over, I found myself wondering about her -- did Joyce McKinney finish college? -- how did she wind up in Wyoming? -- did she ever have a full-time job? -- omissions or partial omissions which seemed a little unfair given the assault on her erotomania and (one could argue) insufficient socialization. I left with the feeling that I'd learned a little about the tabloid treatment of a singular woman who may have been even more wack than the "cult" she affected to despise, but ultimately that no one got it right, least of all the normally insightful Errol Morris. If you're a Morris fan at some point you'll probably wind up seeing TABLOID, but be prepared for some letdown.

Life is stranger than fiction!!!

I am left wondering what is crazier; the woman who is obviously, obsessed in a very mentally unhealthy way, the religious aspect of the story, or the fact that so many years later it is still a topic of discussion. Whatever it is, I couldn't look away, no matter how irritated I got.

I usually love Errol Morris documentaries, but this film is a total miss, in my opinion! I found it difficult to finish the film. The convoluted story, and disgusting manor of the film's subject is so repulsive on so many fronts - it's like watching a bum take a dump on a city street. And I resent the manipulations of views, as so often happens in documentaries - "they were saints caught up in an evil world!". No, this is the story of a self-possessed, self-important megalomaniac prostitute/bondage dom who fell hard for a Mormon missionary, and wouldn't let ANYONE deny HER passions, i.e. SHE does the denying (as a dominatrix). Her ego knows no bounds, and this film lets her further her lies and deceptions to the world. Errol's direction here is a mish-mash of tabloid filler and incoherent ramblings from a deluded whore. And not a fun whore who accepts her dirty deeds as part of an adult world of fun, but a whore that denies her whole life, and imagines everyone believes her lies and deceptions, and no one does. No matter what awards she may have garnered, I didn't find her more than passably attractive on a C grade. Sure, she snares several "slaves" to do as she instructs, but mostly this wandering film of a twisted-hearted egotist who refuses to be on the "slave" side of events and will go to any lengths to satisfy her boundless ego (I even doubt she cared that much for this hapless and naive Mormon missionary - it was all about her having control, even over a church and religion). Then there's the whole section about her dogs - WTF! Sappy, filler for a directionless mess of a film. The story is interesting - the subject, and this film are not!

The shipper sent ti to us so quickly. We ordered this and was able to watch it within the week. We would have just rented/or purchased it as an cloud version from amazon, but they wanted twice as much. Don't get why that would be true, but it was.

What I thought would be just a sensationalistic story of a sensationalistic crime turned out to be thoroughly mesmerizing. My jaw dropped several times as I watched. You won't be disappointed if you want to see a good story.

Underrated, one of Errol's more playful and throw away films but that's the nature of a tabloid story I guess. Such a well told tale and beautifully, craftily edited.

a liitle too long documentary . I remember being fasinated by Joyce and the kidnap as a child , secretly reading about it in the paper and so this film was great fun for me . My partner didnt remember her and so he was rather bored .

Tabloid: an Errol Morris Love Story is a documentary about the 25 year oldAmerican woman who flew over to England to 'kidnap' her 19 year old Mormonmissionary lover, Kirk Anderson in 1977.The film does little to take the story forward and just highlights the lurid tabloidjournalism at the time of the first breaking of the 1977, reportage.Joyce McKinney met Kirk Anderson whilst both were attending Brigham YoungUniversity in Provo, Utah, where they fell in love. They had a brief love affair and then according to Joyce, Kirk simply wentand disappeared from her life.What had in fact happened was that in accordance with LDS/Mormon doctrine,the teenager had been sent on the two year obligatory mission that all worthyMormon males are commanded to undertake. Missing her lover, Joyce, plansto 'kidnap' her man, so armed with a replica gun, handcuffs etc., she flies toEngland, with a male assistant. This little woman of just over 5 feet, 2 incheslures Kirk, a big guy of 6 feet 4 away from the LDS chapel in Ewell, near Epsom, Surrey, and ostensibly keeps him spreadeagled and tied to a bedin a cottage in rural Devon, miles from his mission home as an attempt toreignite their passion.No doubt the teenager, realised that his Mission President, Richard M Eyre,would have reported him missing, the prospect of a disciplinary councilor church court and possibility of excommunication from the LDS churchwould have been uppermost in his mind and so he tried to play victim inall of this.McKinney was arrested, remanded to Holloway prison and then bailed toawait trial. She then skips bail and returns to the USA.Later reports that she tried to stalk Anderson in 1984, appear to be true,with the FBI investigating, but she omits this from her account.The film shows that Joyce had a sleazy background as a friendlydominatrix and also worked at one time as a sexual escort. Kirk Anderson is totally absent from the film and is now married and working as an estate agent in Utah.The film is presented in bite size montages with contributions from Joyce,an Ex Missionary, and Press reporters.It is the story of one woman's obsessive sexual love complete with her personal rantings making her appear to the viewer as being, daft asa brush!I gave it 4 stars for it's amusement value and total silliness.

What a story! Fascinating documentary, keeps you gripped and sometimes in disbelief as the story unfolds.

As usual Errol Morris do not just find incredible subjects and characters but also an original way to tell a story. Here he is surely helped by a classic american subject (a young female star that, growing up, becomes a kind of ambiguous and twisted person) and some characters that are really strange than fiction-What's great about Morris is that he never stops looking or recording, and he is always opened to let himself being suprised by the unexpected hiding round the corner, to the point that his stories, like here, seem to talk about something but end up talking about something else. And here, believe me, there are some really strange and bizarre things happen