State of Play

How many good journalism movies are there? I mean, really good journalism movies. Not adequate. Not okay. But damn fine movies set in the journalism world?

“All the President’s Men” is the gold standard. “The Post” is solid. But after that it’s a series of very self-serious films that are hard to take seriously.

If you know anything about journalism, you know that what’s being shown on screen is often absurd. Case in point: in this film, Russell Crowe writes a page one story while his colleagues watch him type – what? I don’t care what story is being written, no one watches another person type.

This film has a strong cast, but the story is convoluted – something about a Blackwater-like pseudo-military corporation maybe killing off a congressional aide who’s entwined in an affair with a member of Congress (Ben Affleck) who just happens to be investigating the same shifty corporation. Washington DC, man, it’s a small town!

The relationship between Crowe and Affleck, who are supposed to have been college roommates even though Crowe was born in 1964 and Affleck was born in 1972, needed to be stronger for the tension, and the twist, to work.