Steal This Story, Please (Elsewhere Films)
2 stars (out of 4)
Directors: Carl Deal and Tia Lessin
Starring: Juan González, Amy Goodman, David Isay
Available: In select theaters, April 10, 2026.
The Glenn Miller Story. The Seven Little Foys. To Hell and Back. These adulatory biopics and many others from Hollywood’s heyday paint their subjects as almost saintlike, with all the warts removed. To that list, you can add Steal This Story, Please!, an at-times didactic, overly long, and hagiographic look at the life and stunning career of investigative journalist Amy Goodman.
If you’re not familiar with Goodman, you’re not alone. The filmmakers were wise to include a couple of clips of people saying, as Regis Philbin told his TV audience, “I was unfamiliar with the name.”
But Public Broadcasting’s audience knows Goodman as the longtime host of Democracy Now!, which reaches nearly 1,500 radio and television stations. The independent, cage-rattling daily global-news show’s mission is to speak for the unheard voices in the world’s conflict zones, whether that’s reporting from Death Row in Georgia or dodging bullets at an impromptu protest in East Timor.
But a recurring theme in the film is whether Goodman is a journalist or an activist. Is it possible to be both? Her efforts to free an innocent man from prison are noble, but should a journalist adopt the role of advocate while reporting on a story? She wears her heart on her sleeve; there’s little doubt where Goodman stands on any given issue. Which begs the question: Is she a true journalist or something more in the way of an opinionmaker? This would have been a rewarding sidebar to pursue, especially with Goodman’s own thoughts on the matter.
The filmmakers wisely decided to open with a scene in which Goodman attempts to interview P. Wells Griffin III, America’s climate representative at the U.N. Climate Summit in Poland in 2018. Griffin, immediately uncomfortable, says, “I’m sorry; I’m running late for a meeting.”
Goodman runs right along with him, continuing her barrage of questions, never letting up, until Griffin manages to slip into a private office.
OK, we get it right away: Goodman is a tough old cookie who knows the ropes and how the game is played. When you see Amy, Mr. Politician, you’d better run!
Instead of telling Goodman’s bio in some sort of narrative arc, the film’s collection of anecdotes, backgrounders, and impressive film clips seems to pop up willy-nilly. If the directors had decided to do a chronological life story, from Goodman’s youth to the present, it would have had some compelling themes—youthful determination, peak-era competitiveness, the inevitable slowdown at the end of a long, laudable career. Or if the directors had wanted to organize Goodman’s exploits around categories like war, politics, the environment, or corporate exploitation, there would have been no complaint from this movie-reviewer’s desk.
As it turns out, despite the many editing choices available, the filmmakers’ organizational thinking is difficult to fathom. No doubt, there’s a pattern here, a rationale for the seemingly haphazard arrangement of topics. I just couldn’t find it. We bounce from Goodman’s 1980s start in broadcasting to the release of a mistakenly imprisoned man in 1995 to a street massacre in East Timor in 1991 to a hand-drawn newspaper that her little brother produced in 1969 to….Well, I could go on.
Goodman isn’t part of this film’s problems. She’s a force of nature. You’ll be glad to learn more about her—just, perhaps, not this much more. With her 35-plus years of experience, her many accolades (including from the Overseas Press Club and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards), and her sheer cussedness about getting the story, Amy Goodman is worth knowing.
What I had hoped for in this film was the tonal equivalent of war stories bandied around by half-drunk reporters at the Beirut Hilton’s Up on the 31st Bar during a lull in the fighting. What I found instead was a distracted and overweight version of what could have been a tight little master class in biography.
As for Amy Goodman being on the side of journalism or activism, stick around after the credits, where a 10-second Easter egg of a clip might provide food for thought.
Author Bio:
Mark Orwoll writes about travel and film for Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine