Free Press makes cameo in new Hallmark movie: Which newspaper films got it right
Julie HindsIf you work at a newspaper, you tend to watch movies about newspapers through an extremely critical lens.
How can they afford all those designer clothes on a reporter's salary? Why do their offices look clean and bright and not like an abandoned clutter museum?
Where are the reporters who don’t look like a young Robert Redford?
To mark the premiere at 9 p.m. on June 7 of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel's "Tipline Mysteries: Dial 1 for Murder," which is set partly at the Detroit Free Press (and was made in association with USA TODAY and the Free Press' parent corporation, Gannett), here are some other films about the print legacy media and what they get right. Or not.
'Citizen Kane' (1941)
A reporter (Joseph Cotten) is assigned to review his publisher's (Orson Welles) wife's horrendous opera singing, but gets drunk and passes out, which leads to his firing. Oh, and this cinematic masterpiece about the Welles character, tycoon Charles Foster Kane, buries the lead about Rosebud’s identity.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
'His Girl Friday' (1940)
Editor (Cary Grant) manipulates his ex-wife reporter (Rosalind Russell) into covering an execution, but his real agenda is stopping her from getting married again. The screwball comedy is funnier than actual newsrooms, but its depiction of workplace romances as the only dating option given the job's grueling hours is about right.
'All the President's Men' (1976)
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) expose the corruption of President Richard Nixon and his administration, all while convincing a generation of young men and women to pursue journalism as a noble profession (without warning that not every obscure court assignment leads to a Watergate-sized scandal).
'The Paper' (1994)
One of the few movies to get the mix of crucial stories, mundane gripes, pressure-cooker deadlines and kooky co-workers of a real newsroom right. It’s beloved by real newspaper folks for details like a reporter named Phil's effort to get the money approved for a $600 orthopedic chair.
'27 Dresses' (2008)
A perennial bridesmaid (Katherine Heigl) becomes fodder for a features story by a cynical reporter (James Marsden) who writes the wedding announcements for his paper. The plot is severely dated, not the rom-com element, just the part where Marsden's character is allowed to spend days, apparently, on one minor assignment.
'Never Been Kissed' (1999)
A shy copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times named Josie (Drew Barrymore) goes undercover as a student at her old alma mater to chronicle high school life. Never mind the deep ethical questions posed by Josie's romance with a teacher while on the job. Let's just focus on the deep ethical questions about Josie impersonating a teen.
'Spotlight' (2015)
The Oscar-winning drama is based on the Boston Globe investigative team's exposure of the cover-up of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese. It's required viewing for ink-stained wretches who are stressed out by the state of the industry and tired of being vilified as fake news.
'The Post' (2017)
Washington Post owner Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) and executive editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) lead this thrilling story about the publishing of the Pentagon Papers, the leaked classified documents that told hard truths about the Vietnam War. In a plot twist difficult to imagine these days, the Supreme Court actually supports the rights of the press!
'News of the World' (2020)
A Confederate war veteran in 1870 (Hanks again) traverses Texas while holding events where he reads the latest headlines to people with no access to papers. About 80 years later, they'd start calling this person a TV news anchor. Ba-dum-bum.
'She Said' (2020)
A dramatization of the quest of real-life New York Times writers Jodi Kantor Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) to reveal powerful movie magnate Harvey Weinstein’s numerous instances of sexual misconduct with women. How do you make dogged reporting that holds people accountable seem as important as it is? By depicting it this accurately.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.