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Thanks for the memories!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

A Masterpiece!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

You can never trust a tabloid to tell the truth. Often times the 'news' that are reported in them are skewed in such a way to boost sales, or are most often... down right wrong. Errol Morris cuts through the strange story of Joyce McKinney's lifetime of gossipy headlines in a series of interesting interviews in this documentary.I personally had never heard of the former Miss Wyoming, who broke headlines in the 1970's, when she and a few compatriots traveled to England after planning the abduction of a man involved in the Mormon religion. Kirk Anderson was a young man who met Joyce near Salt Lake City in the U.S some time before committing himself to his faith. There was some sort of love affair between the two, and even promises of marriage, kids and a life together. Then one day, quite suddenly and with no explanation, he leaves for England. I was quite saddened by the way she told this story, and it's pretty obvious how much she loved this man, and normally when a man runs off without saying goodbye, it's pretty understandable that the relationship is over. But not for Joyce. She wasn't taking no for an answer.The story that unfolds is pretty wild, but an absolute pleasure to watch. What makes it so interesting is the way Joyce tells the story, as the events get wilder and wilder, stranger and stranger until you have to ask yourself, 'Is this actually what happened?' She tells the story with an absolute certainty that it happened the way she tells it, and there are other interviewees that contribute to the wild tale that unfolds. However it's her personality that makes it really shine. She comes off as a happy, carefree kind of person. A real southern belle with a attitude of such nonchalance, that you can't help but smile when she describes some of the more, shall we say, illegal activities she committed.The film shows us how far some people are willing to go for desire, even to the point of unbelievable madness. There is a bit of a sweet seaway in the main story at the end, that actually shows her obsession very well, but I couldn't help but smile at how nuts she is... but in a nice way. Certainly a sad story, perplexing at times, and simply hilarious as well.7/10

The subject of this documentary is a good one: In Britain in 1977, a Mormon missionary name of Kirk Anderson accused Joyce McKinney, a model and former Miss Wyoming World, of abducting and raping him. Both were Americans. Why were two Americans in Britain? According to McKinney, they were engaged to marry in the States when suddenly Anderson disappeared. McKinney hired a private detective who discovered Anderson, a Mormon, had been sent on missionary work in the UK. McKinney flew to the UK to find him. They did meet each other again and engaged in a sexual encounter, which they both agree on. However, the nature of that encounter is disputed by both sides. McKinney claims it was consensual while Anderson holds it was kidnapping and rape. Not a bad subject.Unfortunately, in Morris' hands, the documentary doesn't work as well as it should. Morris doesn't like to use narrators for his documentaries, which is effective for certain subjects, like "The Unknown Known" in which Donald Rumsfeld is essentially his own narrator, while for other subjects, it's inadequate. Unfortunately, the lack of a narrator is rather ineffectual in "Tabloid" as I found much of the material confusing. This is not an easy case to understand if you've never heard of it, as I had not until I saw the documentary.When the case entered into the public consciousness, it became a media frenzy. It had everything the tabloids live to publish: celebrity, sex, bondage, and religion. In terms of the documentary, there were moments when I wanted to know more about the bare facts, not just some of the interviewees trying desperately to decide what they thought about it. Sometimes the interviews offer the facts but in long-winded and/or convoluted verbiage making it difficult to glean what was understood about the case. At one point in the story, McKinney was being exploited in the tabloids in fetish-like garb with a male as her slave. I couldn't understand if her "slave" was Anderson or someone else. And when was she released from prison? I read online she jumped bail in the UK, but I wasn't sure the ordering of events.This was disappointing as I wanted to understand better this case. For those documentaries where "let the interviewees tell the story" sans narrator, the film risks being enigmatic and confusing. I still believe the most effective documentaries are those which juxtapose narration and interview in which we get the best of both worlds. This was clearly a case when a narrator would have been very helpful. But I'm sure Morris will always stick to the way he does things.

Back in 1977 the British press had great fun with a story concerning Joyce McKinney. A former Miss Wyoming, Miss McKinney pursued her boyfriend to the UK, kidnapped him, and proceeded to try to de-programme him for the Mormon Church by way of chaining him to a bed and inflicting a week of sex on him. He turned out to take exception to this, and Miss McKinney went to court.This film revisits the story, principally by way of giving over centre stage to Miss McKinney to tell her story, interposed with contributions from other participants (though not the victim, who declined to participate), contemporary clips and images etc. Miss McKinney is an engaging and intelligent speaker, though effusive to the point of verbal incontinence. She gives every impression of believing every word of her incredible narrative.I found her story much more difficult to credit, however, and when I use the word "incredible" I use it in its literal sense - "not believable." Every viewer is, of course, going to form their own conclusion, but I am inclined towards the newspaper man who regards her as barking mad - at the very least, she seems unable to recognise the contradictions inherent in her own story.This unusual documentary is entertaining though somewhat worrying, and with an underlying sadness to it.

This film was reviewed for Cambridge Filk Festival (UK) - 15 to 25 September 2011 I was not really of an age to have known about Joy(ce) McKinney at the time that she rose to prominence, but, as the former Mormon who was used in the documentary to explain various things remarked, what she said was one thing, what the Mormons said was another, and maybe what actually happened fell in the middle somewhere.Be that as it may, it is a curiosity of this subject that The Daily Mirror says that (as a result of what happened to Mirror Group Newspapers) it no longer has much of the evidence showing that she performed sexual services (although not intercourse) for money before meeting her ideal man, and that Joy herself says that a large amount of original material that proved the contrary was stolen from a vehicle of hers. She states that the material that the Mirror used at the time was faked, whereas its photographer says that he saw the negatives and prints, and the magazines in which the images appeared.Altogether intriguing, though nothing was as significant, for me, as the account of the cloning in South Korea of five puppies, all with sub-names from their beloved 'parent' Booger, and courtesy of some tissue from his stomach. The practitioner who had performed the procedure said that he wasn't playing God, because he wasn't creating life – well, you could have fooled me, if that's not what those five Booger replicas were…!