Filipe Furtado’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Wouldn’t this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?" Albert Brooks says that 15 minutes in and then James L. Brooks follows it up with 2 hours about how needy self-absorbtion can be attractive and aspirational. It is of course one of the movie running jokes that Hurt's self doubt is one of the things that effective sell him to people and it is one of the first moments one knows how good Brooks is at what he was doing is when it gets clear Hurt bought in on Hunter's early presentation not because he cares shit for journalistic standards, but because she tells him exactly what his self-image needs to hear. Broadcast News has nothing really to say about journalism (and it was a major hit in 1987 because its eulogy was already dated by then), but while as a TV guy Brooks can idealize it far too much, he also understands the medium is all about narcisism and he makes a wonderful movie around it. And he got three really great lead performances around it (even if there isn't a second I buy Hurt is dumb), plus Joan Cusack, the movie unsung hero. Broadcast News most use the TV news subject as entry point to character observation and some perfect choreographed comic movements. One can easy chastise for having Hurt ethics failure be something so quaint, but that he can't imagine his lead do something worst than that is part of what I love about him. And Brooks flop sweat attack remains one of my favorite comic setpieces.
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