Broadcast News (1987)

The critic calls it Brooks’ funniest and most incisive portrait of navigating personal and professional lines, praising its prescient take on TV news shifting toward infotainment and the complex ethical dilemmas faced by the leads.

The piece hails the film as a romantic-comedy masterpiece that remains resonant, especially for its sharp writing, multilayered characters, and astute portrayal of journalism; it singles out Holly Hunter’s performance as the vital, empowering center.

The critic calls the film a wonderfully funny yet trenchantly sober look at modern romance in a high-pressure TV news bureau, crediting James L. Brooks' brilliant screenplay for blending romance and workplace satire effectively. It singles out the strong performances, especially Holly Hunter's as the anxious producer and the insightful take on workaholics navigating professional and personal tensions.

Enormously entertaining inside look at TV journalists' lives, praising the performances especially Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks, and Brooks' sly satirical edge.

The critic describes the film as a funny and provocative examination of the professional and emotional conflicts within a TV news team. They single out James L. Brooks's insightful writing and direction, along with the strong ensemble cast, for particular praise while noting a minor flaw in the epilogue.

It's Drop the Dead Donkey stateside in this sweet-and-sour satirical comedy. A romantic triangle develops between three self-serving Washington TV journalists, with Holly Hunter provoking the sorrow and pity of lives at the mercy of their careers.

Brooks is knowing about the wisecracks, back-stabbings and political shifts of the media game, underpinning a charming love-triangle with a serious statement about television news. The script has superb set pieces and crackles with furious one-liners, though it is a little soft-centred.

Brooks' original screenplay captures the backstage world of television news at peak panic with delicious specificity and powers of observation. It offers eavesdropper pleasures on real newsroom dynamics through sharp dialogue and character revelations.

The film is as knowledgeable about TV news as any movie but also examines how people use high-pressure jobs to avoid personal introspection. It centers on three characters in a romantic triangle who are ultimately more obsessed with work than love.

The review praises the film’s watchable cast, comic set pieces, and Hunter’s vulnerable yet powerhouse performance as Jane, while noting some built-in naïveté in its view of substantive journalism and a diluted epilogue.

Television news-as-entertainment is the funny, occasionally satiric subtext of this bright comedy with smashing performances by William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter. Brooks goes inside a network's Washington bureau to show how things work in a gentle expose.

The critic finds the film entertaining with witty dialogue but criticizes its lack of filmmaking excitement and conventional satirical approach, singling out the authentic newsroom hum and Albert Brooks' performance for praise while noting the TV-like episodic directing as a flaw.

The critic praises the film as a subtle, insightful masterwork about journalism and human desires, noting how it cuts deeper than more strident satires like Network by showing people knowingly choosing the attractive over the substantive. The performances, especially Albert Brooks as the truth-telling but repressed Altman, are singled out as note-perfect.

The film is a masterpiece and among the best movies ever made about journalism, standing out for its exceptional performances and deeply honest writing. It offers an accurate and hilarious look at the media hellscape as it was then and remains now, while treating romance as secondary to the characters' work obsessions.