Tabloid (2010)

Tabloid (R)

"Standing on Sleazy Street"

The film that proves the old saying "Fact is stranger than Fiction,"  Tabloid is filmmaker Errol Morris' (Fog of War) documentary about the scandals surrounding Joyce McKinney that were exploited by 1970s trash-journalism in the UK.  Morris allows McKinney to unwind and wax crazy about the sex-scandal that involved a Mormon boyfriend who then cried rape and kidnapping and shocked a continent.  The details are often whitewashed by McKinney (the lurid details are oft provided by the slimy Tabloid journalists and her former acquaintances, and the movie sets up the premise of which side should you believe without taking sides).  The wide eyed Joyce's past is shamefully revealed and repeatedly denied, but it is the strangeness of the human heart, from Mormon prudishness to dead pet cloning, that is the real star here.  An entertaining yet palpably sleazy tale, Tabloid jumps feet first into the pool of yellow journalism yet inevitably doesn't come out completely smelling like roses, despite how hard it tries to wash its hands clean.

6 Greasy British Tooth Smiles out of 10 (GOOD)