Scoop

As "Scoop" (2024 release from the UK; 102 min) opens, it is "New York 2010" and a British celebrity photographer shoots pictures of Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein during a walk in Central Park. We then go to "Nine Years Later" and shortly after Epstein is arrested and kills himself, there is tremendous pressure on Prince Andrew to explain his friendship with Epstein. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from British director Philip Martin ("Hawking"). Based on the 2022 book "Scoops" by BBC Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, the film in essence falls into two parts: how was McAlister able to convince Prince Andrew (and his small entourage) to agree to the interview, and once they agreed to the interview, how did both sides prepare for the interview. The cherry on top of the cake is of course the interview itself, carefully reconstructed and recreated. If there is one common theme in all of it, it is how insanely clueless and completely out of touch Prince Andrew is with reality and with how this would be received by the public at large. Andrew is fully convinced the interview went well. To be clear: the interview could hardly have gone any worse for Andrew. The move benefits enormously from a strong collective performance by the cast, including Billie Piper as Sam McAlister, Rufus Sewell as Andrew, and last but certainly not least, a brilliant Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis (the BBC Newsnight interviewer). Bottom line: even though we of course know the outcome before we watch this, "Scoop" makes for a great journalism drama, and ik kept my attention from start to finish.

"Scoop" premiered on Netflix last weekend, and I just saw it the other night. It is currently rated 76% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels about right to me. If you have any interest in the British royal family or in the BBC, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

The subject matter of the interview was interesting, but you are better off just watching the real life interview of this is what you are interested in. Andrew's serious character flaws are already well known and we don't see anything new here. The film tried to flesh out the events surrounding the interview without much success, possibly because these events weren't particularly interesting or insightful. It served more as a self-congratulatory vehicle for the journalists involved, I have to admit the back slapping from the girls club was a bit sickly. Some good performances but not enough to elevate this mediocre production.

Yet again, Gillian Anderson absolutely nails her character, Emily, the way she did with Thatcher. The expressions during the interview with the Prince were so uncanny, you almost do a double-take to see if they'd spliced in actual footage! Billy was good as Sam, although her performance and the script didn't quite capture Sam's humour and her strengths that you can watch on longer interviews she's done. Rufus did an adequate job as Prince Andrew, certainly with replicating the trainwreck interview sequence but I feel they could have touched on a bit more of his repulsiveness - however, the story is, afterall, from Sam's point of view. When he gets out of the bath to check his phone, after the interview had just aired, it would have been a nice touch to see who had left the message ~ "Mummy".

Well yes. To see Gillian Anderson play Emily is worth the whole thing. I must confess that Gillian Anderson wasn't an actress I cared about or thought in anyway as a contender among her contemporaries. Her character in the X Files was what settled in my brain, so, nothing earth shattering until, well until her Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. That took me completely by surprise and blew me away. Now "Scoop" and she's the main reason to take your breath away. It's not an impersonation but something else. Something that belongs to great acting. Rufus Sewell was very good in the impossible task of playing Prince Andrew but Gillian Anderson bridges that impossibility and makes that, already famous interview, totally and utterly riveting. So, well done and thank you.

I like the way it's shown how out of touch the palace crew was, especially before the interview aired when they were saying Andrew did "wonderful."

I think it's just a fine watch, nothing mind-blowing. But it's interesting to get a peek of the supposed behind the scenes of that infamous Prince Andrew interview.

It's not some edge-of-your-seat drama though, which I think is great because not everything needs dramatization. Since it's based on a book of a real event, with some creative changes, don't expect any crazy MI6 agents busting in to shut the interview down or anything like that. It keeps things relatively grounded despite the subject matter.