In the past, there have been films that have acted as confirmation of the belief that “truth is stranger than fiction.” In the case of the story behind “Tabloid,” truth is indeed much, much stranger than fiction.
Veteran documentary director Errol Morris’ latest documentary follows the life of Joyce McKinney, whose scandalous story comes off as concurrently bizarre, disturbing and humorous. While most of Morris’ documentaries, such as “The Thin Blue Line” (1988), deal with life-or-death subjects, “Tabloid” focuses more on themes of obsession and sexual delusion.
“Tabloid” is a film that explores the drawing lines between love and obsession from both an individual and civic perspective. This is one of those stories where the audience sees two sides of the same story: Joyce McKinney’s side and everyone else’s side.
The story opens in 1977 when Joyce, a former Miss Wyoming with an IQ of 168, fell in love with a characterless Mormon named Kirk Anderson, who claimed to have reciprocated her love. He is not the best looking man in the world, but he owns a Corvette, so she’s immediately infatuated. Before they can get married, Anderson is sent off on a Mormon missionary trip in the United Kingdom and McKinney hires a private investigator to find him.
Following him into the United Kingdom, McKinney “rescues” (or kidnaps, whichever way you look at it) Anderson and takes him to a small, country cottage where they engage in sexual intercourse involving some bondage.
This is one of the bizarre aspects of the film that gives the audience a clear description of McKinney’s reality. Though constantly engaging in coerced sex, McKinney believes the sex is consensual and uses it as a method of what she calls “deprogramming” Anderson’s “brainwashed” mind, which she thinks the Mormons filled with lies and deception.
She eventually gets arrested for her publicly appalling actions, and the story turns into the case of the “manacled Mormon,” which becomes all the rage among British tabloids as the public grows fixated with her fixation.
While this documentary may be called “Tabloid,” the movie doesn’t provide a shrewd look at the immoral tactics toward a tabloid writer’s attempts to expose outrageous secrets. This documentary is basically about what McKinney has to say regarding her actions.
If there is one thing Morris triumphs at in his documentaries, it’s presenting very interesting characters who prevent audiences from losing interest in the narrative. One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is the character of McKinney, a woman who, in her mind, has done nothing wrong and every action she committed was for the sake of love, including the abduction of her true love and the cloning of her beloved, departed dog.
With his unique, directorial style during the interviewing process of the documentary, Morris gives an intimate perspective of McKinney while portraying her as a frisky, eloquent and overly self-justifying woman who believes that the possibility of women committing rape is equivalent to “putting a marshmallow into a parking meter.”
In addition to McKinney’s own viewpoint, Morris respectfully interviews other individuals involved in the scandal. The movies also introduces the perspectives of the pilot who flew McKinney to London and the tabloid reporter who exclusively interviewed her after her return flight. These people share a universal concurrence toward most of the story’s facts, but there is a difference among their understandings of the events.
With the previous haziness of the Casey Anthony trial and the current existence of tabloid figures like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, “Tabloid” could not have been released into theaters at a better time. “Tabloid” is smart, mind-boggling and spontaneously watchable in its 88-minute run time.