Journalism Movies You Should Watch
Plus: The best movies of the decade (so far)
Journalism is one of the professions that has a long and storied history at the movies. You wouldn’t think simply reporting the news would make for the most cinematic subject matter, but the many different kinds of journalism and its proximity to world-altering events make for varied and weighty movies.
The latest opening in select theaters now (and going wide on January 13th) is September 5, which depicts the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew covering the events. We’ve recommended a variety of journalism movies below to pair with September 5. As always, thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!
Drew recommends…
The Post
The true story behind The Washington Post’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 (after The New York Times beat them to it) doesn’t sound like the most gripping material for a movie. However, when it’s directed by Steven Spielberg and headlined by Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, it suddenly becomes very watchable. The Post doesn’t rise to the level of great journalism movies like All the President’s Men or Spotlight, but this sturdy drama about the role of the free press still has plenty of real-world resonance.
Streep plays Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, and Hanks plays Ben Bradlee, its executive editor. These two go back-and-forth agonizing about whether to publish the Pentagon Papers – a set of classified documents detailing the history of the United States government’s political and military involvement in Vietnam – in riveting scenes that allow Streep and Hanks to own the screen together. Spielberg has dipped his toe in many different genres over the years, so it’s no surprise he can shoot a newspaper movie with energy and verve. And, despite the fact that we know the ending, The Post’s retelling of the Nixon White House’s hostility towards journalists made for an apt comparison to a certain administration in power when the movie released in 2017.
Available to rent on digital platforms
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Does a ridiculous (and hysterically funny) Will Ferrell comedy have anything of substance to say about journalism? If you’ll indulge me for a minute, I’d argue all of the movies Ferrell made with director Adam McKay are about more than you think under the surface.
Anchorman tells the (fictional, obviously) tale of successful and beloved San Diego newscaster Ron Burgundy and his news team, who are disrupted by the arrival of a female anchor named Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). In the midst of the hilarious dog-punting, trident-throwing, and jazz flute-playing, Anchorman is primarily a portrait of a boys club workplace struggling to deal with changing times. Apparently, the idea for the movie came from Ferrell seeing an interview with a former anchorman talking about how sexist they were back in the 1970s.
The Ron Burgundy character is an ingenious sendup of this type of clueless chauvinism, right in line with other Ferrell creations like Ricky Bobby and Chazz from Wedding Crashers. On SNL and in the movies, he has always had a perfectly clear read on how to play the proud ignorance and unearned confidence of these masculine characters to get laughs from all kinds of audiences. Burgundy doesn’t do any real journalism in Anchorman, but he thinks he’s the best damn newscaster in the world, and his fall from grace and eventual reckoning with shifting gender dynamics in his profession makes for both incredibly funny and effective storytelling.
Streaming on Netflix and Paramount+
Billy recommends…
Spotlight
This is a re-post from May 2023
Spotlight is about The Boston Globe unveiling that the Catholic Church in Boston covered up how hundreds of priests were sexually abusing children. The writers Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (also the director) not only beautifully showcase the importance of the press revealing corruption, but shrink the emotion of that massive revelation from The Boston Globe to a local perspective. That perspective can be attached to many demographics. The one that I identify with the most is how truth can existentially change how you view something that once felt so safe.
Click here to read the full recommendation
Streaming on Starz
From the DYLA Archive
DYLA Podcast
As we near the midpoint of the 2020s, it seemed like a good time to recognize the best movies of this decade so far. In this episode, we revisited our top 10 lists from 2020 through 2023 to see how our picks hold up, if our opinions have changed, and if any overlooked films deserve a spot. But first, we break down the Golden Globes nominations in order to see what shape the awards race is taking right now.
Apple Podcasts:
Spotify: