A brisk, ensemble-driven newsroom comedy-drama with real snap, strong performances, and a lively sense of chaos. It’s more entertaining than profound, but if you like fast-talking workplace movies about pressure, ego, and deadline adrenaline, it delivers.
46% ★★☆☆☆ (31,172)
The Paper
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Comedy · Drama · R
1994 · 1h 52m · ★ 46% (31.2K)
A behind-the-lines look at work, marriage and other forms of combat.
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close
Overview
Henry Hackett is the workaholic editor of a New York City tabloid. He loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchet-man Alicia Clark—Henry's nemesis—impose unpopular cutbacks.
Director
Ron Howard
Production
Imagine Entertainment, Universal Pictures
Cast
Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Jason Alexander, Catherine O'Hara, Jason Robards, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Jill Hennessy, Spalding Gray, Lynne Thigpen, Jack Kehoe, Roma Maffia, Clint Howard, Geoffrey Owens, Amelia Campbell, William Prince, Augusta Dabney, Bruce Altman
Curator Review
Verdict
A brisk, ensemble-driven newsroom comedy-drama with real snap, strong performances, and a lively sense of chaos. It’s more entertaining than profound, but if you like fast-talking workplace movies about pressure, ego, and deadline adrenaline, it delivers.
Best for
fans of newsroom and workplace ensembles
viewers who enjoy fast-paced 90s studio comedies with dramatic stakes
people who like Michael Keaton at his most frantic and charismatic
audiences drawn to smart, cynical, but ultimately crowd-pleasing journalism stories
Skip if
you want a hard-edged, deeply realistic press drama
you dislike broad, high-energy dialogue and overlapping chaos
you prefer subtle character studies over busy ensemble plotting
you are looking for a film with a consistently serious tone
Overview
The Paper is a lively tabloid-pressure cooker that treats a newspaper deadline like a disaster movie. Ron Howard keeps the pace moving, and the cast gives the material more bite than the script always earns. Michael Keaton is perfectly tuned to the role: harried, funny, and just self-righteous enough to make the newsroom feel lived-in.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the ensemble friction. Glenn Close brings steel, Robert Duvall gives the movie some gravitas, and the supporting players help create a noisy, competitive world where everyone is always one bad call away from a headline. The film has a screwball rhythm that occasionally undercuts its seriousness, but that’s also part of its charm.
Bottom line
It’s not a great journalism movie in the All the President’s Men sense, and it doesn’t fully escape its middlebrow instincts. Still, it’s energetic, watchable, and often very funny about the absurdity of chasing truth under impossible deadlines. If you like movies about work that feel like controlled panic, this is an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (3★) · 376 likes
Michael Keaton screaming "I LIVE IN FUCKIN' NEW YORK CITY! SO GO FUCK YOURSELF!" Iconic.
David Sims (3.5★) · 294 likes
Randy Quaid plays a gun wielding conspiracy theorist in this
Sean Fennessey (2.5★) · 156 likes
Genuinely spirited and angsty and good on the intrinsic solipsism of journalists until it turns into an unforgivable nightmare in the final 20 minutes.
Cameron (3.5★) · 121 likes
I admit it. I am predisposed to like any movie that suggests that Donald Trump has thrown himself off a building within the first 5 minutes.
carrieandtracy · 118 likes
At the very least, they could have included Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur in the “Special Thanks” credits.