Extra! Extra! Read All About the Best News Movies!

Stop the presses! In this age of 24-hour news and social media, it’s easy to get cynical about the Fourth Estate.

But even the most skeptical can recognize the power of a free press. Reporters have the awesome responsibility of telling the world what they see and helping the citizenry make informed decisions about events and movements across the country. Given its high stakes and intrinsic tension, the news media makes for an ideal cinematic subject, resulting in classics across several genres about intrepid reporters, hard-bitten editors, and handsome anchors.

While these greats often have very different perspectives on the nature of the news, sometimes praising its virtues and other times condemning its corruption, they all recognize the power of the press.

1. Network (1976)

Everyone knows the most famous scene in Network, in which news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch), still drenched from the rain pouring outside the studio, implores the audience to give into their anger. According to Beale, getting mad and refusing to take it anymore is the one way that Americans can reverse their media-influenced slide into submission and reassert their values as human beings.

The scene earns its reputation thanks to incredible blocking from director Sidney Lumet and a well-constructed speech by screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. However, most people misunderstand the meaning of the scene.

With Network, Lumet and Chyevsky have something more sinister in mind than just one old newscaster’s plea for accountability. Instead, Network shows how even this sincere demand can get co-opted by the rating system, which turns the necessary work of informing the public into entertainment.

2. His Girl Friday (1940)

On the surface, His Girl Friday plays like nothing more than a screwball comedy, in which editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) tries to win back his ex-wife, and best reporter, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) by putting her on a chase for the story of the century. Based on the 1928 play The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, His Girl Friday features some of the best dialogue of all time, punchy quips traded at such a speed that Walter and Hildy feel like they share a brain.

However, His Girl Friday has far more substance, albeit lurking in the background of the film. The case that Walter and Hildy investigate involves a white man rattled by Leftist rhetoric, who shoots a Black police officer and may be executed for it. Neither director Howard Hawks nor screenwriter Charles Lederer devote too much attention to the details of the case. But the story remains a constant, the thing that drives Walter and Hildy as newspeople.

3. Zodiac (2007)

The protagonist of Zodiac works at a newspaper, but he’s not a reporter. No, Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a cartoonist and puzzle enthusiast who overhears his colleagues at the San Fransisco Chronicle talking about the cryptic letter they received from a man identifying himself as the Zodiac Killer. Written by James Vanderbilt, based on Graysmith’s own books about the investigation, the David Fincher-directed Zodiac is a precision-tuned mystery about an unsolved crime.

Graysmith’s work brings him alongside reporters, including self-destructive crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), and police officers, in particular San Fransisco detective Frank Toschi (Mark Ruffalo). But Graysmith remains the driving force in the investigation, so committed to the question that he undermines every part of his life.

4. Citizen Kane (1941)

The Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane portrays everything great and terrible about journalism. The frame narrative follows reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland), who searches for the meaning behind the last word spoken by publishing magnate Charles Foster Kane (Welles), “Rosebud.” Thompson’s search takes him deep into Kane’s past, including the workings of the newspaper business where he made his fortune.

Based on William Randolph Hearst (among others), Kane indulges in all of the power afforded him by his control of information. The screenplay by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz shows how Kane gained a foothold on the political scene by using his paper New York Inquirer to make or break careers. Moreover, the Thompson frame narrative shows how most secrets cannot remain hidden forever — unless, of course, they involve a beloved sled.

5. All the President’s Men (1976)

Were it not based on the real-world Watergate scandal, director Alan J. Pakula and writer William Goldman’s All the President’s Men would seem like fiction. The movie follows two reporters for the Washington Post who learn that an insignificant burglary in the Watergate Hotel has national ramifications. Under the guidance of editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), and with the help of an unnamed informant (Hal Holbrook), Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) do the impossible and expose corruption under President Nixon.

A fictional version of All the President’s Men would emphasize action and excitement. While Pakula gives the movie a few thrilling scenes, it puts most of its energy toward showing the journalism process at work. Woodward and Bernstein interview sources, share information, but most importantly, they write. It might not have the same appeal as running from secret government agents, but the writing scenes in All the President’s Men remind viewers that all the information in the world doesn’t matter if people can’t read it.

6. Nightcrawler (2014)

For all the noble excitement in the investigations portrayed in All the President’s Men or Citizen Kane, writer and director Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler shows the dark side. Jake Gyllenhaal sands away all the wholesome charm that made him an effective protagonist in Zodiac, leaving just a wiry frame to play Lou Bloom. Small-time crook Bloom learns about a more profitable game by recording footage of accidents and selling it to local stations.

Gyllenhaal gives an electric performance as Bloom, a man with audacity and charisma but without morals. But Gilroy reserves the harshest critique of the system that allows a man like Bloom to thrive, from station head Nina Romina (Renee Russo) to the viewers who demand more shocking content.

7. Ace in the Hole (1951)

Nightcrawler may take a cynical look at news media, but it doesn’t match the dark heart at the center of Ace in the Hole. Directed by Billy Wilder, who co-wrote the script with Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels, Ace in the Hole ranks among the great filmmaker’s most pessimistic movies. Kurt Douglas stars as big-city reporter Chuck Tatum, who gets exiled to Alberquique, New Mexico for alienating his colleagues uptown.

Tatum thinks he’s found a way out when he learns about Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) a local man trapped in a collapsed cave. Tatum forms a fast friendship with Minosa, which grants him exclusive access to the story. However, he also manipulates the police and rescue workers to keep Minosa trapped, thus increasing the attention given to him, even as the public sees Tatum as a sympathetic hero. Ace in the Hole pulls no punches in its portrayal of the news media, resulting in a film as tough and unforgiving as the New Mexico landscape where it takes place.

8. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Director Adam McKay would go on to make films about serious topics, such as The Big Short and Don’t Look Up. But he never got more incisive or powerful than with his goofball comedy, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Will Ferrell, who receives credit with McKay for the improv-heavy script, plays Ron Burgundy, a macho and dumb, but well-liked anchor in 1970s San Diego. When the station hires Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) as a co-anchor, Burgundy and his chauvinist pals feel threatened.

Without question, Anchorman is a big, goofy comedy, which uses its 1970s newsroom setting as a launching pad for jokes. However, those jokes underscore the power of local news to affect public opinion, whether it’s getting them to accept women in the workplace or keeping them informed of happenings at the zoo.

9. Medium Cool (1969)

Every movie on this list borrows from the language of news reports, but Medium Cool actually feels like news in cinematic form. That effect stems from writer and director Haskell Wexler’s decision to shoot material at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, capturing images of the police attacking protesters. A respected cinematographer, Wexler puts visuals first in Medium Cool, using shaky hand-held shots and a cool color palate to ground the movie in reality.

Robert Forster plays cameraman John Cassellis, who rebels against his bosses after learning about their collusion with the FBI. After getting fired, Cassellis finds work covering the DNC convention and forges a relationship with single mother Eileen (Verna Bloom) and her son. More than an empty romance plot, the relationship between Cassellis and Eileen keeps viewers focused on the stakes, showing why the reported events matter.

10. Spotlight (2015)

Many of the movies on this list focus on reporters covering major events, such as serial killers or corrupt presidents. Spotlight turns its attention to something far more insidious and chilling, the systemic coverup of abuse in the Boston Catholic Church. Directed by Tom McCarthy, who shares script credit with Josh Singer, Spotlight focuses on the titular division of the Boston Globe, which devotes its resources to complex stories.

Although Spotlight does make room for Mark Ruffallo’s Michael Rezendes to give an impassioned speech about the high-level complicity he uncovers, McCarthy keeps most of the movie low-key and focused on the day-to-day work. Rezendes’s fellow reporters Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) go about their business in a professional manner, as do Spotlight editor Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) and Globe editor Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber). The sober approach matches the subject matter, showing the importance of the Spotlight team’s work.

11. Newsies (1992)

Yes, the Disney musical Newsies does feature a reporter in the form of Denton (Bill Pullman). It even features Robert Duvall chewing scenery as Joseph Pulitzer. But in Newsies, writers Bob Tzudiker and Noni White and director Kenny Ortega devote most of their interest to the boys who bring the news to the people. When Pulitzer decides to up his profits by raising the price that the boys pay for their inventory, the newsies decide to strike and, in turn, become news themselves.

Even today, the left-wing politics of Newsies shock viewers expecting something more gentle from a Disney picture. However, any controversy gets mediated by the fantastic song and dance numbers performed by lead Christian Bale as the rebellious Cowboy. With its inspirational songs and message of collective resistance, Newsies shines a light on the forgotten parts of the newspaper business.

12. Broadcast News (1987)

Broadcast News earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay for writer and director James L. Brooks. Although it took home none of the hardware that night, the multiple nominations underscore just how much Broadcast News captured the spirit of the late 80s.

Like His Girl Friday before it, Broadcast News layers a romantic farce on top of heavy themes. Part of the film involves a love triangle between driven reporter Jane (Holly Hunter), her life-long friend Aaron (Albert Brooks), and handsome new anchor Tom (William Hurt). The dynamics between the trio also serve as a referendum on the future of news journalism, as Aaron and Jane worry that Tom represents an unhealthy change in the medium. Brooks doesn’t give his film the same teeth as Network or even His Girl Friday, but Broadcast News serves as a fascinating state of the industry in the late 80s.

13. The Insider (1999)

Like the best Michael Mann films, such as Heat and Thief, The Insider tells the story of a man on the verge of a difficult decision. That decision belongs to chemist Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), who works for the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. As Wigand considers becoming a whistleblower against his industry and its work to cover the deleterious effects of smoking, he comes into contact with 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) and host Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer). Bergman wants Wigand to follow through, in the form of an exclusive interview with Wallace.

Based on the article “The Man Who Knew Too Much” by Marie Brenner and written by Eric Roth and Mann, The Insider provides a more balanced look at the good and bad parts of the industry. The always-intense Pacino plays Bergman as a man driven to succeed, but that pairs with Wigand’s desire to tell the truth, a man who needs the platform that 60 Minutes gives him.

14. The China Syndrome (1979)

The China Syndrome takes its name from a colloquial way of describing a nuclear meltdown, in which irradiated materials will melt through the Earth and end up in China. Despite that fanciful wording, The China Syndrome takes a far more serious look at failures at a nuclear power plant and the cover-up to keep it operating. Directed by James Bridges, who shares a co-writing credit with Mike Gray and T.S. Cook, The China Syndrome makes heroes of the news people who undo the cover-up.

Jane Fonda plays reporter Kimberly Wells who, along with cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas), happens to shoot during a partial meltdown. Although subtle, the event catches Wells’s attention, and she and Adams go looking for more, much to the chagrin of their boss Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). Bridges indulges in a lot of conspiracy thriller tropes common to the 70s. But instead of cheapening the material, these aspects underscore the heroic nature of the reporters.

15. Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Most of the movies on this list have high stakes, but none can outdo Foreign Correspondent, in which reporter John Jones, aka Huntley Haverstock, follows an international conspiracy on the verge of World War II. When New York Morning Globe reporter Jones (Joel McRae) goes to Europe to report on political tensions, he notices the strange behavior of Dutch diplomat Van Meer (Albert Bassermann). As he investigates Van Meer’s actions, Jones learns of a powerful cabal that has much to gain from global war.

As one might expect from a picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Foreign Correspondent has thrilling sequences and wrong-man plotting, which made him the master of suspense. But it’s Jones’s job as a reporter, in the first years of World War II, which gives Foreign Correspondent its power, a direct look at horrors both real and imagined.

16. The Post (2017)

In terms of this list, The Post plays like a prequel to All the President’s Men. Like that earlier film, The Post deals with the Washington Post’s actions during the Nixon Administration. However, while reporters such as Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk), and A. M. Rosenthal (Michael Stuhlbarg) appear in the film, The Post turns most of its attention to the people behind the reporter.

Having inherited the little-respected Washington Post after the death of her husband, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) spends most of her time at social events with the likes of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood), leaving editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) to run the paper.

But when Bradlee and his team come into possession of the Pentagon Papers, which detail problems in the Vietnam War effort, Streep must decide if she’ll allow her paper to run the story, breaking the law and alienating friends such as McNamara. Even if it didn’t come from the master Stephen Spielberg, The Post has a riveting, character-driven hook, thanks to the rich script by Josh Singer and Liz Hannah.

17. Civil War (2024)

Written and directed by Alex Garland, Civil War occurs in a near-future America amid violent turmoil. An alliance of rebel troops in Florida and California have turned against the federal government and, by the opening of the film, have almost reached Washington to force the President (Nick Offerman) to surrender. Veteran photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirstin Dunst) and her partner journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) want to see it when it happens.

Many have criticized Civil War for its lack of specificity, an aversion to ideology that keeps it from commenting on the real state of the United States. However, the film has no interest in immediate relevance. Instead, Garland reserves his criticism for journalists like Lee and Joel, those who watch and report on events instead of interceding in them.

18. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

A common theme among movies about the news deals with fear about changes in the discipline, the reoccurring concern that new media will result in more entertainment-driven, and less substantive coverage of important events. The noir Sweet Smell of Success offers perhaps the most unpleasant version of that theme, thanks to its depiction of a media elite based on writer and commentator Walter Winchell.

Burt Lancaster plays columnist J.J. Hunsecker, a man of immense influence and light ethics. When press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) takes an interest in his teenage sister Susan (Susan Harrison), J.J. makes it his mission to destroy the man, using the power of the press. Even at their most bleak, neither writers Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman nor director Alexander Mackendrick demonize the press. Rather, they illustrate its awesome power and warn against those who would use it for their own gain.

19. The French Dispatch (2021)

Even at their most weighty, movies from Wes Anderson have an other-worldly quality, owing to the filmmaker’s precise and unique visual style. For most of its running time, The French Dispatch follows suit. A collection of vignettes built around the urbane foreign bureau of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, The French Dispatch devotes most of its attention to stories involving Owen Wilson as a reporter on a bike, Benicio del Toro as a mad genius painter, and Frances McDormand as a journalist covering a student uprising.

But then comes the penultimate story, “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” featuring Jeffery Wright as food critic Roebuck Wright, being interviewed by a TV host played by Liev Schreiber. Delivered in Wright’s gravelly baritone, Roebuck narrates a comedic caper involving a cooking policeman and a ransom plot. But Roebuck adds moving observations about class and racism, showing how reporting is more than just describing facts; it is an art.

20. The Front Page (1974)

The Front Page shouldn’t work, at least not after His Girl Friday became a classic in 1940. Both the 1974 and 1940 movies adapt the 1928 play The Front Page. However, the 1974 film stands out, in part by removing the gender dynamics that Hawks inserted for his version and in part from Billy Wilder’s caustic direction and strong leads by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Working from a script by Wilder and his frequent collaborator I. A. L. Diamond, The Front Page retains the same basic plot as previous versions. Editor Walter Burns (Matthau) tries to lure back his best reporter Hildy Johnson (Lemmon) with an exciting story about an execution. In place of the snappy dialogue by Grant and Russell, Matthau and Lemmon have a more weighty rapport, which suits Wilder’s dyspeptic worldview. The result is a movie less enjoyable than His Girl Friday, but even more rich in its depiction of newsroom politics.

21. Christine (2016)

Network goes broad to depict an anchor whose poor health and frustration with industry changes drives him to drastic ends. Christine, written by Craig Shilowich and directed by Antonio Campos, tells the true story of Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall), a reporter in 1974 in Sarasota, Florida. Circumstance relegates Chubbuck to unsatisfying local color stories as she is unwilling to chase the more sensational material her boss (Tracy Letts) wants to see.

Anyone familiar with the story of Chubbuck knows how Christine ends, with the reporter dying by her own hand on live television. However, the power of Christine comes from the care and humanity it devotes to her final day, standing by the reporter in her refusal to choose flashy violence over humanity.

22. Call Northside 777 (1948)

Most critics put the Jimmy Stewart picture Call Northside 777 in the noir genre, and with good reason. The moody film deals with a death row inmate, punished for killing a policeman. However, director Henry Hathaway and his writers Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler give the material an inspirational spin, highlighting the power of the press to do real good.

Stewart plays P. J. McNeal, a reporter assigned to look into the $5000 award a woman offers for information about the wrongful imprisonment of her son Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte). As McNeal looks further, he realizes that Wiecek didn’t do it and works to exonerate the man. Based on the real story of reporter James McGuire and convict Joseph Majczek, Call Northside 777 highlights the Fourth Estate at its best.