Struggling with what to watch this evening? Don’t feel like going out and braving the unreliable British weather? Looking for new movies to tick off your Letterboxd watchlist? We’ve got your back with a list of our favourite films about journalism and journalists to get stuck into.
From biopics to romantic comedies, there is something for every beat — and we’re always open to suggestions. Or, if you’re a bookworm, have a flick through our 18 Of Our Favourite Books Featuring Journalists.
Oscar-winning film Spotlight is a biographical drama about the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation into sexual abuse and the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
Directed by Tom McCarthy, the film follows a team of journalists pursuing what eventually became a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation. We see them as they navigate gaining the trust of victims, the tight-lipped lawyers who played a part in covering up what turned out to be a significant campaign of sexual abuse, and the editorial decision-making throughout.
As a result of the Boston Globe’s ongoing reporting on the issue, the scandal was pushed into the national spotlight and, in 2002, five Roman Catholic priests in the Boston, Massachusetts area had criminal charges brought against them.
The film stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Stanley Tucci.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, The Post stars Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, The Washington Post’s executive editor.
It follows the true story of efforts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers — highly classified documents concerning the US government’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the first Indochina War, fought between 1946 and 1954. The New York Times was the first to publish part of the classified files when they were leaked by State Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg.
However, the film follows The Washington Post’s subsequent involvement with the story, including its competition with The New York Times and the legal considerations it had to grapple with when covering such a story.
This ‘90s rom-com follows a seemingly archetypal storyline: the main character is a writer who takes undercover stories to an extreme.
In this instance, it’s copy editor Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore), an insecure 25-year-old, who is assigned to go undercover at a high school (?!) to report on the students’ antics so parents can have an insight into their children’s lives. Unfortunately for Josie, haunted by bad memories of school, she struggles just as much to ‘fit in’ at 25 as she did when she was actually at high school.
Take the legal and ethical considerations with a pinch of salt; Never Been Kissed is a fun, nostalgic film with the take-home message that who you are in school means nothing in the real world.
Become a Journo Resources Member And Supercharge Your Journalism Career!
JR Memberships are built with you in mind to help make your journey into the journalism industry that little bit easier. Click here to join our community today!
Continuing the theme of ethically questionable journalism, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days also chronicles one writer’s undercover escapades. Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is Composure Magazine’s resident ‘How To’ girl, but she “wants to write about things that matter.”
And what could matter more than a long read about the steps you need to take to get rid of a guy in 10 days? To be fair, Andie’s assignment highlights the bizarre modern dating contradiction of showing you’re interested without appearing too keen.
The spanner in the works here is that Andie’s subject, Ben (Matthew McConaughey), who works in advertising, has been challenged by his colleagues with making a woman fall in love with him. So, when they both meet amidst their respective challenges, it creates some interesting dynamics.
It’s a classic, fun film you’ve probably already watched several times without realising.
Bill Murray leads the team of The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun in the Wes Anderson film, The French Dispatch (2021).
A relatively recent Netflix release, Players follows Mack (Gina Rodriguez), a sports journalist for a local paper, and her friends/colleagues Brannagan (Augustus Prew), the obituary writer, and Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), a designer.
Mack and her friends have always wing-manned each other, and, in keeping with the sports theme, even have specific ‘plays’ they use. But when the famous war correspondent Nick Russell (Tom Ellis) moves into the office, and Mack decides she wants to pursue a ‘proper adult’, the group find themselves all out of plays.
Alongside the pursuit for Nick, we see Mack working on a personal long-read (which she hasn’t pitched to the editor yet) about people’s memories of the local baseball stadium.
As trivial as the storyline might seem on the surface, it serves as a reminder that not everyone will like your writing — but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should always change it.
Written and directed by Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch is an anthology comedy-drama set in a twentieth-century fictional French town, Ennui-sur-Blasé. The film, which Anderson called “a love letter to journalists”, brings to life three stories published in the farewell issue of The French Dispatchof the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun — an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city.
The film’s first segment, “The Concrete Masterpiece”, starring Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux, is about an incarcerated and unstable painter. Part two, “Revisions to a Manifesto”, is inspired by the 1968 student protests in France, stars Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, and Lyna Khoudri. The final segment, “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner” is about the kidnap of a police commissioner’s son and stars Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, and Stephen Park.
Kiera Knightly plays Katharine Gun, the British linguist and intelligence whistleblower in Official Secrets. The film tells the story of how Katharine leaked a top-secret National Security Agency memo exposing a joint UK-US illegal spying operation against UN Security members leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion. The memo in question proposed blackmailing smaller, undecided UN member states into voting for war.
Journalist Martin Bright published the leaked document in The Observer, sparking global coverage and the collapse of any potential UN resolution in favour of war. President George W. Bush invaded regardless, and Katharine was arrested and charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act — the UK’s legal protection against espionage and the disclosure of official information.
Official Secrets recounts the moral questions of the case and the role, obligations, and risks of journalists and journalism in such events.
Matt Smith plays the part of Martin Bright, who also faces potential charges, and Ralph Fiennes plays Ben Emmerson QC, the barrister who represented Katharine.
We all know about that Prince Andrew interview, in which journalist Emily Maitlis (played by Gillian Anderson) grilled the royal about his relationship with sex offender Jeffery Epstein. What followed were a string of bizarre answers and immediate fallout, with the prince (played by Rufus Sewell) stepping back from public duties shortly afterwards.
As wild as the interview was, what is perhaps even wilder is that it happened in the first place. Scoop is an adaptation of the book Scoops, written by Sam McAlister (played by Billie Piper), the BBC interview booker who managed to bag the interview.
The Netflix film is based on Sam’s account of securing the momentous interview and the efforts of Emily and former Newsnight editor Esme Wren (Romola Garai) to bring it to the nation.
Amazon released a rival project about the interview, titled A Very Royal Scandal which, Amazon Studios says, focuses on Emily’s “professional and personal journey as a Newsnight journalist leading up to her acclaimed interview with Prince Andrew”. Ruth Wilson played Emily, and Martin Sheen starred as Prince Andrew. In a slightly meta turn, Emily was an executive producer on the production.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays photojournalist Louis Bloom whose ethics come into question in Nightcrawler (2014).
Although this one isn’t based on a true story, Los Angeles cameraman Austin Raishbrook is said to have inspired Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Oscar-nominated Nightcrawler. Jake plays the character of Louis “Lou” Bloom, a petty thief who, while desperately seeking work, stumbles upon the murky, high-stakes world of crime journalism in LA.
After seeing and speaking to some ‘stringers’ (freelance photojournalists) at a car crash site, Lou steals and pawns an expensive bicycle to buy a camera and police radio scanner. Lou’s first successful gig comes after he records the aftermath of a fatal carjacking and sells the footage to local TV news station KWLA 6. Lou goes on to hire an assistant, a young homeless man called Rick, played by Riz Ahmed who too, gets dragged into the underbelly of ethically questionable and legally contentious frontline journalism.
Based on the true story of the case of the so-called Zodiac Killer — a serial killer active in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s — Zodiac centres the detectives and newspaper reporters covering the case.
Jake Gyllenhaal (hello again) stars as Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist who closely follows and becomes obsessed with the case. The real-life Robert went on to write two books about the serial killer, who was never formally identified.
The film also stars Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards as investigators and Robert Downey Jr as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper that the Zodiac killer taunted with cryptograms and letters.
Maybe not one to watch before bed.
Inspired by true events, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie star as three Fox News anchors in Bombshell (2019).
Bombshell stars Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie as three Fox News employees in their mission to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Although the film is based on true events, it tells the story through a mixture of real people and fictional characters.
Charlize’s character Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor, is a real person, although she has questioned some accuracies of the film. Gretchen Carlson, the journalist who ended up publicly accusing Ailes of sexual harassment, initiating his eventual downfall, is also real. Margot Robbie’s character, producer Kayla Pospisil, one of Ailes’s first victims in the film, is fictional but draws on evidence from the actual case.
The film won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and generally has positive reviews, although some people have questioned some aspects of the portrayal and accuracy.
Hannah Bradfield
After joining the Journo Resources team at the end of 2021 as a trainee, Hannah was promoted to staff writer in 2023. She focuses on writing original features at Journo Resources, as well as managing our TikTok and X accounts.
Currently based in Norwich, Hannah also recently completed her NCTJ Diploma with News Associates on their remote, part-time course.
You’ll usually find Hannah trying to beat her parkrun PB, hunting down the nearest baked goods, or sweeping the shelves for any new designer dupes.
Hannah is also a freelance writer and journalist, available for commissions on a variety of lifestyle topics including but not limited to health and fitness, fashion, mental health, sport and education. She has written and created content for BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Stylist, The Telegraph, Happiful Magazine, South West Londoner, The Indiependent, Mancunian Matters, and Runner’s World.
