Tabloid

Joyce McKinney was, for a short time, the most famous name in trashy British redtops. This film, made 34 years later, features her as the main (unreliable) witness to her life, and it is one of the best documentaries I have seen in a long time.

You can see why the newspapers whipped themselves into such a frenzy about her. She was a former Miss Wyoming who arrived in the UK, kidnapped a Mormon who she was in love with, and proceeded to drive him to a remote cottage and have her way with him – possibly using handcuffs. From then on, the story gets progressively more surreal.

Director Errol Morris (who has made such amazing films as Thin Blue Line and Fog Of War) says that she is the most fascinating person he has ever interviewed, and you can see why. She monopolises most of the film, and you go from feeling sympathy and interest, to a sense of irritation, disbelief, and downright incredulity, before arriving at a strange tender empathy. There are a few others who tell their story, but she is the self-deluded central attraction, and it's a film you really should see,

7/10