Review of Broadcast News (1987) by Clark B — 15 May 2010

I'm old school, and this is my favorite James L. Brooks film. Netflix is playing this Instant Watch, so I Roku'd it with my 16 year old daughter and she fell asleep 20 minutes in. It's a great movie but I guess it's dated.

The issues this comedy explores - the sensationalizing of the TV news business, competition with the print media and the cluelessness of network executives - those worries seem quaint now. They're a little hard to remember, eh? With the rise of a pseudo news organization like Fox, and the continuing decline of the network news broadcasts and newspapers, things were falling apart even worse than Brooks could have imagined.

So be it, I didn't wake the poor girl up to relearn late '80s issues, but I should have. Holly Hunter has never been better as a network producer torn between her ideals and her libido. William Hurt is very good as a charming, slightly dim pretty boy reporter and Albert Brooks is hilarious and has one of my favorites scenes of.. well.. it's a great scene and I won't say anything about it. I don't want to ruin it, in case you haven't seen it. I showed my daughter this scene before I made her watch it, it's one of my favorites, and she laughed hysterically. If it were the only good scene in this movie, I'd still probably give it five stars. It's funny, trust me. This is a great comedy that sticks to your ribs. You laugh, AND feel like you might have learned something, but maybe you have to be over 35 to appreciate it. I think I'm slowly becoming that demographic advertisers aren't interested in. 18-49, right? In four more years I won't even understand media. I'll just be bitching about Katie Couric as I'm snuggly encased in my Depends, the discreet undergarment.

Anyway, this movie has a lot of good scenes - it's a comedy for grownups - and it's a classic. It's slightly dated, but all movies are, aren't they? That's the nature of movies. "Citizen Kane" was about a newspaper tycoon. I mean how rich can you get selling newspapers, right? That was a losing proposition and dated even in the '70s. Well I stayed awake and loved it, and hugged my dad when it was over. What a great wonderful man my dad was for sharing his movie with me, but not my daughter. She just falls asleep. She was like in a coma or something. You know I walked three miles uphill both ways to watch "Citizen Kane". I made the effort, not her though. Do your children snore? Hmm. She doesn't appreciate her dad's movies like I did. She's grounded as soon as I can shake her awake. No more i-Phone for her!