Scandalous
“Scandalous: The True Story of the National Enquirer” is both a semicelebratory history lesson and a cautionary tale about yellow journalism. The film, a highly enjoyable documentary that spotlights the nation’s most famous gossip rag, provides more questions than answers about the merits of the sensationalistic tabloid, yet it’s always an interesting window into American culture.
After opening with a sobering statement from Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, formerly of the Washington Post, the film assumes an almost giddy tone as it recounts the gory origins of the Enquirer — and the hectic jobs of staffers who wouldn’t let a little thing like ethics get in the way of unearthing dirt on celebrities.
For most of its 96 minutes, “Scandalous” concentrates on what it was like for reporters to work in such a crazy environment — and the big stories that at one time made the Enquirer a ridiculed, despised and begrudgingly respected mustread. The interviews with the past writers and editors are uniformly engaging, as they reveal the formidable logistics that went into such stories as Elvis Presley’s death, the Gary Hart presidential affair, and the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, when the rag was at the height of its investigative powers.
The film eventually touches upon the saga of Donald Trump from two important angles: the president’s curiously tight relationship with the tabloid, which extolled him and pilloried Hillary Clinton on its covers throughout the 2016 presidential campaign; and the Enquirer’s catchandkill story policy, which protected Trump from damaging revelations about his dalliances with a porn star and a Playboy model.
Oddly, these crucial events in the tabloid’s recent history play more like a postscript than a heavyduty third act, but the dark and darker sides of yellow journalism are still made clear to us.
In the end, the goal of the documentary, told mainly from the point of view of Enquirer alumni, is to be entertaining, and director Mark Landsman succeeds on that level, keeping things brisk and highly visual. He’s taken a page out the National Enquirer’s preTrump playbook: Give the viewers what they want.