Saturday, July 16, 2011

Errol Morris is a director with a penchant for both the darkly disturbing and the darkly humorous. His films range from a violent cop-murder to pet cemeteries to a man who believes that the holocaust never happened and beyond. Within these subjects Morris splits his approach, some he approaches with the emphasis of making a clear point, of addressing the darkness inherent in the subject (the cop-murderers of The Thin Blue Line, the soldiers of Standard Operating Procedure, etc.) while in other films he just presents the material and allows the bizarre nature of his subject to paint a lighter, more comedic (if one can describe Morris as comedic) tone. Tabloid, Morris’ latest picture falls firmly in the vein of his more darkly comedic films, so much so that one might describe it as his lightest film to date. And though the film is yet another notch in the amazing filmography of the great Errol Morris, it’s almost too effervescent, too slanted towards his more somberly comedic tendencies. Perhaps it’s a reaction to the oppressively dark tone of his previous film, Standard Operating Procedure, but Tabloid is so darling the ideas that it plays with feel lacking in gravitas, and the film feels inconsequential because of it.

Movie Review - Tabloid

It’s hard to write disparagingly about an Errol Morris film as he’s, as said before and by many other , smarter people, an absolute genius. Morris thrives at presenting a subject and a story from one angle and then spinning that angle and showing it from another and another and another, until the viewer has seemingly absorbed it from every viable position. This tendency is prominently on display in Tabloid, the absolutely fascinating story of Joyce McKinney, a love struck lady who goes to lengths beyond reasonable means to be with the love of her life. It’s hard to write about Tabloid because of joy of any Errol Morris film, especially this one, is in the unveiling of the ins and outs of the story, but to say as little as possible, Morris explores not only the character of Joyce McKinney but of our societies proclivity towards those things presented as shocking. McKinney is a blustery, fast-talking story-teller, and Morris does a fascinating job of allowing her to present her story (in the best sort of Midwestern tall tale telling) and then highlighting the oft times conflicting tales of her co-conspirators. It’s a great, entirely enjoyable film, and I left with a huge shit-eating grin on my face.

I just wish the film had left me with a deeper feeling than just a buck-toothed smile. I loved that Morris indulged himself in a story that didn’t have to have far-reaching ideas, but I wanted more from McKinney’s story. I wanted Morris to reach deeper and I don’t believe he wasn’t trying, I just think that McKinney’s story doesn’t offer enough for great soul-bending ideas to be plumbed from it. McKinney did silly things that had consequence, but at the time they were done they were already seen as silly, thus Morris’ dissection of the case feels more like a spirited retelling of a truly scandalous story. And sure, it entertains, but it never reaches past that. Instead what we’re given is a fantastic bit of fluff from one of the great filmmakers of our time, and though this is an amazing thing, the film is surely to be classified as a lesser work.

- Noah Sanders -



Unless otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by John Laird under a Creative Commons License.