Tabloid

Tabloid (2011) is an Errol Morris documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Its subject is Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who became a British tabloid sensation in the late 1970s. According to the papers, she tracked down a young Mormon missionary, whisked him off to a country cottage and held him there against his will. According to her, it was a love story and he went willingly.

Morris refuses to pick a side. He lets McKinney talk for hours, sets her version against the memories of the Fleet Street reporters who chased the case, and leaves the viewer to decide where devotion shades into obsession. His signature style does the heavy lifting here — the more charming she sounds, the more uneasy you feel.

The story keeps swerving from comedy into something close to a thriller: an abduction, handcuffs, an escape under a fake name, and a final act involving a cloned dog that you could not invent. Morris, who made The Thin Blue Line and won an Oscar for The Fog of War, delivers his strangest and funniest film. Great for anyone who likes documentaries built around a person rather than an issue. Stream Tabloid online on iFILM.