There’s a certain canon of journalism films that students become acquainted with in their time studying the field. In my experience, at least, a professor would often cue up All The President’s Men, Shattered Glass, or a documentary—today’s students have a biopic—about Richard Jewell during that slowed-down period ahead of exams.
Few of these movies, though, actually capture the humbling experience of training to become a reporter. A new film premiering at Tribeca Film Festival titled Cold Copy turns these common career anxieties into a nail-biting noir. The drama follows a postgraduate student named Mia Scott (Bel Powley), whose attempts to impress her cutthroat professor, a primetime reporter named Diane Heger (Tracee Ellis Ross), lead her down a corrupt path—one involving the use of a child (Jacob Tremblay).
Despite its attempts to make viewers ponder on our desire for sensational stories, Cold Copy is ultimately more successful at delivering spectacular performances from its three leads—most notably Ross—than any sort of meaningful interrogation of post-Trump, #Resistance-era journalism. (The kind of reporting it wants to skewer is hardly that specific.)
From first-time feature director Roxine Helberg, Cold Copy is that type of movie that’s a little too confident (and hardly nuanced) about what journalism should and shouldn’t be. It often describes the profession in inadequate terms that don’t feel like they come from a place of editorial experience. Honest, ethically researched work is described by several characters as “real” and “genuine,” while on the other side of the media spectrum are greedy, bottom-feeding reporters like Diane, who’s likened to “Dr. Phil” by a student.
In general, what makes Diane’s approach to reporting, other than a befuddling, unprofessional decision she makes towards the end of the film, is vaguely defined. She mostly just comes across as tough, sometimes smug with her interview subjects. The footage we see of her interview segments isn’t particularly damning, if only indicative of her determination to “find the story.”
But Diane’s cutthroat journalistic expectations are still enough to corrupt Mia’s own aspirations and lead her down a precarious path, all for the sake of a class project that could possibly help her get a job.
After weaseling her way into Diane’s highly competitive journalism course at an unnamed university, Mia and her classmates are assigned to create a 20-minute news segment. (The guidance they’re given by Diane is as frustratingly vague and unhelpful as I recall receiving in many an undergrad course.) The story Diane deems the best will appear on her news show, The Night Report. She also offers job opportunities to students who impress her, she says, which makes Mia especially hungry for her approval.
After some trial-and-error and awkward interviews, Mia finally lands on an interesting subject: a precocious teenager named Igor, who saves her from an aggressive date while she’s walking through his neighborhood. It takes a moment to register that Igor’s a child and not a scrawny college student (Tremblay’s sudden maturation from his breakout performance in Room is generally disorienting to look at). He’s as sarcastic and disillusioned with life as someone his father’s age. He’s also extremely gifted at drawing.
His interest in Mia—who, by all means, comes off as generally desperate and riddled with insecurity—is initially uncomfortable to observe and feels like it might cross into Licorice Pizza territory. Only Mia finds another way to take advantage of Igor, albeit for what she thinks will give her the Earth-shattering story that will catapult her career.
This is where Cold Copy becomes perplexing in what it considers not just morally acceptable but also compelling journalism—even to the most exploitative of newshounds. Scrolling through Igor’s social media, Mia discovers that his mother was a famous children’s book author, who died of an accidental drug overdose. When Mia pitches an inspirational, Today-esque segment on his artwork and the impact of his mother’s death, Diane implores her to mine for darker details and lean into Igor’s anger as a motherless child.
Fully under Diane’s spell at this point, Mia goes to criminal lengths to discover the truth about Igor’s mother (that she actually committed suicide) and reframe the segment, receiving Diane’s approval. Still, it’s hard to grasp what exactly is so novel or newsworthy about a child naturally experiencing grief. Even with the celebrity tie-in, the story is still entirely focused on Igor and his rebellious behavior, which includes skipping classes occasionally and ripping apart bags of sugar in an abandoned factory. For all the dialogue in this film about finding a strong, captivating angle, Mia’s big exposé falls short.
Ultimately, Mia’s report is more shocking in how underwhelming (and random) it is than in the unambiguously awful tactics she uses. The fact that Diane, a well-respected anchor with a hard-earned resume, goes on to co-opt this story for her own gain, as if it has any news value, makes even less logical sense. Once we see the final edit, which resembles a thinly written Inside Edition segment, it’s hard not to let out a chuckle.
Despite an almost implausible plotline that would make any journalist raise an eyebrow, the film manages to be a mostly fun, Fincher-esque ride. It soars in moments where Mia goes toe-to-toe with Diane, in their non-sexual dom/sub relationship. Ross is perfectly cast as a witty, menacing antagonist, whose sitcom experience, plus Helberg’s snappy dialogue, lends to the drama’s surprising amount of laugh-out-loud moments. Powley makes for a deliciously infuriating antiheroine. And Tremblay’s performance as Igor is both mesmerizing and enigmatic, even if the character’s isn’t necessarily front-page news.
Cold Copy ultimately feels like an ill-informed critique on the modern state of journalism without any sort of specific take on what the problem actually is. Maybe if Helberg had narrowed her screenplay to focus on reporting in politics, business or entertainment, there would be more of a thesis to latch onto. Instead, the hazardous relationship between Diane and Mia is what primarily makes the film watchable. If anything, I walked away wanting to see Ross play Lydia Tár.
