User reviews

...the characters and acting weren't good

The film delves into to competitive world of journalism, following a (seemingly) sweet and timid grad student as she pursues her dreams, and gets accepted into a class taught by an "alpha dog" of current events news, a forceful anchor of a "Hard Copy" type show. We come to learn that our timid lead is not a shrinking violet at all, but a little cutthroat who will do anything to be seen and heard by her professor. There's the makings of a good story here, and while it is somewhat explored in the 90 minute runtime, it has gaps and holes that make it less than believable.

Neither of the two lead female characters... are terribly appealing, and the actors playing them seemed stiff and fake. Our student (Mia) is portrayed as too fearful to become the wretch she turns into (almost overnight), and the professor/anchor is an almost non-human caricature of vindictive success. 16 year old Igor (Jason Trembley) does better as the subject of Mia's story... I wish they'd have done more with wrapping his storyline... would love to know what happens next for him. We're teased, but then no.

With a tighter story, and better characters, this could've been an improved film. Instead it becomes (pun intended) "nothing to write home about." Meh.

Cold Copy tells the story of mousey try- hard journo student Mia ( Powley) who is desperate to succeed and impress her hard nosed teacher/ mentor ( Ellis-Ross). A chance encounter with a 15 year old boy gives Mia the chance to come up with something juicy- but she will have to lie and edit the truth to make it happen. The film is quite tense as you sense the desperation in Mia. It also dissects the morals of journalism- starting out with the pursuit of truth v "what it takes" to get a story. The film does have some holes that is not addressed - such as the backlash from the falsity of the story. Stay patient till the very end as there is a final " punch in the gut" that is both satisfying and fitting to the idea of " whatever the cost" Whether you will be engaged completely to see out the ending will be subjective. Some have criticised the performances but I thought Powley was pretty convincing. Definitely worth your time.

Cold Copy is categorised as a crime/thriller/mystery but in my opinion it's just a drama, not even a good one. Watching this was like when you start reading a book and after hundred pages you start to realize that this is going nowhere, but you started the book, so you want to finish it, in case it got better but you have no high hopes. This movie is the same, the story is weak but you hope it will get better. I found everything very predictable so no mystery for me, nor any thrilling. Maybe a crime if you could call that a crime, it's more infantile behaviour. Writer/director Roxine Helberg didn't convince me. I watched Cold Copy because of Jacob Tremblay, that shined in Doctor Sleep and Room. He also played the young Tandy in the excellent comedy series The Last Man On Earth. He wasn't bad in Cold Copy, the story was just boring to watch. The other characters were annoying to watch. Time waster in my humble opinion.

In dramatic thriller "Cold Copy" journalism student Bel Powley (strong rising star) scratches a place in the class of her idol Tracee Ellis Ross (slightly over the top) - a hard-hitting interviewer at the height of her game & fame. To stay, learn & thrive tho, Powley must take tough advice, especially on the story she's on about her teen 'friend' Jacob Tremblay (meh) whose famous author mum died some years earlier. It follows a predictable path, but with little tension and scant twistiness, ending somewhat satisfyingly yet still with many loose ends untied. Debut writer / director Roxine Helberg aimed for a "Wall Street"-lite... and just about made it... albeit VERY litely. Mediocre.

When we first decided to watch this it had a score of 7.0 and no reviews, and indeed not much information about it at all. The trailer looked ok though. By the time we did watch, a week or two later, the score had dropped to 5.8.

The characters of Mia and Diane aren't all that believable, but the story is quite strong and moves along pretty well. It's all about how far Mia is prepared go down Diane's recommended approach that the story is more important than the truth, because what's truth anyway. Enjoyed it for sure.

There's also quite a strong ending, which is a solid achievement because a lot of movies just sort of fade away at the end. Good work.

I was expecting this film to go somewhere and despite that it felt underwelming though at the same time I believe it was brought back to life by a pretty good ending. Bel powley plays mia scott ,someone to old to be student and I feel sorry for her, she looks tired. Anyway I enjoyed her performance the most. Mia is a journalism student trying to get through college despite her lectuer diane not making things that easy for her. She makes them write a piece. An expose of someone and she befriends this boy named igor and everything goes from there. I didnt think it was all that thrilling but I appreciate the cast and overall still an interesting watch.

The movie is quite interesting for a directorial debut. The third act was quite rushed since there are a lot of things that was seemingly skipped between Mia and Igor.

Despite not getting to show full potential, Jacob Tremblay made another great performance. His character Igor has a pure heart and you just want to fill the void he has living mostly alone.

Mia is like Thanos in her own movie. When you see how much lines she cross, you will know how journalistic integrity start to not exist anymore in this movie.

If ever there is a director's cut for this movie, I'm expecting more Jacob scenes as his final scene could have had a heavier impact. But overall, the movie was good enough, and of course Jacob's performance was great!

This movie certainly wasn't intent on doing any favours for the journalism industry. Every character is an absolute monster and it's not even all that subtle about it. I get that it's a cut-throat industry and what this film is portraying probably isn't all that far from accurate. It doesn't change the fact that it makes for a pretty tough watch though.

Even still, the movie feels very flat. I never really felt like I'd been given a reason to keep watching or to stay invested. The story just kind of ticks along and then there's a decent, if quite cliche, ending and that's that. It's all very forgettable stuff.

I don't know, I just didn't feel like the film had enough to offer. I'm not going to remember this one a week from now. 5/10.

Journalism student Mia Scott is desperate to impress the hard nosed, but influential journalist Diane Heger, even if it means breaking the rules to land the perfect story.

It has a made for TV feel to it, so don't expect slick production values or a film full of A-listers, but do expect a good story, and some very competent acting.

The story is quite a good one, and it will hold your attention from the start, unlike many similar films it does actually end quite well, an unexpected climax, it becomes a story of revenge. A few poignant scenes throughout, Mia opening up about her past, very good.

Heger truly is a monster, but an interesting villain, Tracee Ellis Ross is excellent, but Bel Powley steals thr show, she's great, and acted as producer.

8/10.

7.1 stars.

A college female wants to be a great journalist, it's her lifelong dream since she was eight. She fights tooth and nail to get into a journalism class taught by a famous female nighttime news anchor. She will do anything to get in and everything to get ahead. That's basically the story. It's about stabbing people in the back left and right, no respect for anyone whatsoever, even to the point of potentially betraying an innocent 15 year old boy. Everyone is fodder for the "protagonist" in this film.

What did I glean from this movie. Probably nothing. It's not a study on character building or morality or ethics, it's about having an edge and a dull conscience, traits that accelerate your career in journalism. You do what you must to climb the ladder in the news business.

The acting was superb, but the story was a bit slow.

Unlike some other reviewers here, I did not at any point sense that the filmmakers were trying to get me to root for the main character, nor did I think she "suddenly" turned evil. She seemed rather unscrupulous from the first moment she appeared on the screen.

I guess that indicates decent acting from Bel Powley, and I do like her quite a bit in general and would say she's the strongest part of this film. Tracee Ellis Ross, not so much. One gets the sense she watched The Devil Wears Prada one too many times and essentially traced over Streep's Miranda Priestly to create her character. Unlike Streep's, however, her performance was WAY too "affected" to feel believable. The other acting was overall serviceable but not good, and sometimes even bad.

The most disappointing thing, however, is how unrealistic the plot is. They want you to take this journey of twists and turns, but this kind of thing just would never happen outside grade school. Without giving up spoilers, let's just say, for example, that if you submitted to a news station a recording of someone's voice that contains serious, career-ending allegations, the burden of proof would be on you to substantiate that the raw, unedited footage matched the final version. Any real journalist would not just accept an mp3 as being accurate and uncut -- in fact, in today's world they'd have someone closely listening into it to detect any flaws that indicated it had been manipulated or even generated by AI.

That's not to say you couldn't fake an audio recording and post it to social media, and destroy someone's career just by the lie going around fast enough to do the job before fact-checkers corrected things. So, since this movie was released in 2023, the filmmakers should have made the necessary tweaks so that the plot (which COULD have actually been pretty good) was believable.

Powley's character also didn't quite match up to that of a journalism STUDENT. She acted like she was at a stage of her career where she could just skip straight to the top and have a career-defining story... when her career hadn't even actually BEGUN. This was a bridge too far for the viewer to accept. I get that her character is rather unhinged, but couldn't we at least have her be a LITTLE bit in touch with reality? Either that or just make her completely bonkers... but they didn't do that. They had her both ambitious and smart, and completely unaware of how her industry (or any career?) works. Just another example of lack of realism.

It also takes almost half the film for the plot to begin to take off. I was bored and pausing to read synopses, to see whether I wanted to continue to watch. It does pick up the pace a little after the halfway point, but it needn't have put us through all the slow, plodding scenes up to that point, which didn't ultimately service the plot anyway. The relationship between Tremblay's and Powley's characters was developed to no real end, for instance, in terms of what they or the viewer might learn about themselves.

I would love to have seen this story done with more realism in both plot and acting -- and also, there was a perfect opportunity to add a REALLY sinister twist (they could have revealed a very deep, dark secret about the main character's past, or at least hinted at it heavily) that would have made it much more memorable. They then should have given the story some kind of satisfying "moral" for lack of a better word. Even if it was a negative one. Instead they almost tried to make it (again) Devil Wears Prada-esque, but in this they failed because so many other components of that very good film were missing here.

Despite all this, it was watchable. For a one-time viewing at least. Just keep your expectations low!

I loved Tracee Ellis Ross in this! Aside from looking captivating, I couldn't hate her even though I should. The storyline was great! And, although I disliked the lead's character and actions, she played her part well, and kept me wondering what would happen next! The film displays the reality of the extent someone who needs life validation would go to get ahead or to stifle someone else's success. We've all come across a character like the lead, where even in her facial expressions, she can't hide her evident misery at another's progress. It's cringe, but I love that it shows what goes around comes eventually around. I liked how the movie ended. With all the junk movies out there, this one was a worthy watch!

An ambitious journalism student falls under the thrall of an esteemed yet cutthroat news reporter whom she's desperate to impress, even if it means manipulating her latest story - and the very idea of truth itself.

I didn't much fancy the title, i kind of expected how the plot would go, but Bel Powley is so watchable I had to watch the entire film. It's really at heart an ethical exploration, and a revenge film. Both parts done exceptionally well.

Tracee Ellis Ross Plays Diane Heger and is the journalist we all love to hate. The one that cares nothing for people, only about stories. The kind of people who may bring us the truth such as The Nixon Tapes, or destroy lives by making public something which did not need to be public. Love her? Hate her? Maybe a bit of both because she feeds both sides of our souls. And Ellis Ross plays the part excellently.

Powley dominates the film though, as a new student, just learning the ropes, and being awe struck by Heger, but also hating her for treading on her toes and stealing her story. She plays her master revenge simply but perfectly but while I was joyous and applauding her for her creative bringing down of Heger, I also was struck that Powley's character Mia Scott had acted inappropriately with a teen, and lied and deceived him to get the story that was stolen from her.

It's natural to be on Scott's side as she hit back at what seemed to be a monstrous lady. And yet Scott proved she herself had no morals or ethics in getting the story in the first place. Who do we root for? Who do we congratulate? It's a difficult question and it's an excellent film.

Although Mia looked much too old to play a college student, the casting was good and Tracee was phenomenal. Roxine, the writer, knew exactly what message she was conveying when she created this movie - the script excelled at illustrating power dynamics. Whether its leadership in the workplace or celebrities in show business, they're not in those positions due to smarts, skill or talent but rather because of ruthless competitiveness. What are you willing to do, give up, or sacrifice for your dreams? The lengths one is willing to go will determine their position in the hierarchy. The characterization of idol and idolator was brilliantly exemplified.