A ★★★ review of Scoop (2024)

This brisk and well-cast journalistic procedural about the BBC's infamous Jeffrey Epstein-associations interview of Prince Andrew that lead to his withdrawal from public life delivers the genre's goods and not much more. Billie Piper stars as news producer Sam McAlister, and the first half of the film tracks her delicate negotiations with the royals to secure the interview. Being a British film, much is made out of McAlister's lower class background and the fish-out-of-water tension this supposedly creates in the BBC newsroom, but Philip Martin's keen, workman-like direction keeps everything moving fast enough that the film never drags. More interesting