Spotlight

I've rated almost a hundred movies and I've only ever given out six 10s on this website. I don't rave about many movies and I am tough to please when it comes to film, but this film is absolute brilliance. It is flawless. This one earns its 10 and it is one of the best films I have ever seen.

Everything about this film is brilliant. The camera work is great and the score is underrated. However, what makes this film is an absolutely genius screenplay that is acted to perfection. This script will rock your world. I am not Catholic. I didn't grow up in a deeply Catholic area, but this film still affected me greatly. Everyone should see this movie for that reason. That is something that you have to see for yourself.

However, I'd like to focus a little more on the technical aspects. Beyond the fact that the subject matter is heavy and extremely important to American and world culture, this movie does everything else right. The acting is absolutely phenomenal. This is particularly true for Ruffalo and McAdams. I adore the subtlety with which they both act. It is brilliant. There isn't much more to say. This film is pure brilliance from its opening frame to its closing moment. For both cinematic and cultural reasons, this is a film that every person should see.

Sometimes, a film of this type makes a real impact... just sometimes... But, it very often doesn't have any impact at all like in the case of movies like Dark Waters (Dupont) or Deepwater Horizon (BP) or Love & Other Drugs (Pfizer/Eli Lilly) or The Big Short (Banks) or Thank You For Smoking (Tobacco)... I'd like to think that this film had at least a measurable impact on society and more specifically, the amount of sexual abuse cases in religion... and that in itself, is commendable.

The film does a good job not only focusing on the main cast of characters, but also spends some time focusing on the sub-supporting characters, like the 'survivors' in the film and spends a good amount of time on the investigative part of the whole story as well... journalism like this didn't just fall out of the sky... it took months and months of hard researching and interviewing many many different people...

They obviously took some creative license wrt. the events and timeline of certain parts of the film, but overall about 90% of the events shown in the film actually happened. And overall it's a good film and a fantastic docu-movie that should be viewed by all at least once.

The real life story of how The Boston Globe did the unthinkable, and exposed the huge cover up, The Catholic church trying to bury the numerous cases of child molestation among The Boston Archdiocese.

This is such a powerful, thought provoking movie, often difficult to watch, some of the content is truly sickening, but a very well made film, very well acted, the truth of how a story that needed to be told, came out, despite the efforts of many establishments to keep it suppressed.

It's not often a film makes me feel angry, Spotlight certainly did that.

Superbly acted by all involved, Stanley Tucci, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and of course Michael Keaton.

There was one scene in particular that stood out, having spoken to The Priest who openly admitted to child abuse, Sacha looks down the road, and hears the innocent sound of children playing, that sent a chill down my spine.

That closing sequences were chilling, cover ups across the world.

9/10.

By coincidence I watched this film only a week after listening to the editor in chief of Huffington Post UK say that authentic writing cannot come from paid journalists, which is why they do not pay their writers (although Adriana Huffington seemed fine with the millions she got when she sold the website). This stuck in my mind when watching this very fine drama about how the Boston Globe reporters uncovered and exposed a mass cover-up of abuse within the Catholic Church. Also in my mind was a sense of disbelief that this true story is not too much more than a decade old – the mass abuse of children by Catholic Priests now just seems such a known thing now that it is hard to imagine a time when it wasn't.

Perhaps because this is so well known, the film is compelling because it focuses on the story of the story, focusing on the journalism. This gives the film the challenge that in terms of action it is mostly people typing, people on the phone, and lots of talking. This it manages really well, building a compelling but robust drama that builds well and takes the viewer along with it. The subject matter means that the emotional side is not left behind either, and the film deftly reminds us of the people (not just the facts) in ways that are natural and integrated, not sentimental or manipulative.

McCarthy directs with professional control, and standards are high – mostly noticeably in the casting. It is not easy to point out one lead, because so many famous faces are here, and all of them do their job in a way that integrates with the rest – there are no really showing moments, no moments where you feel someone is pushing for an Oscar; it is a real ensemble piece, with too many good turns to start to name them all. The end result is that strong writing, and respect for the process of journalism, combines with the importance of the true story and the strong delivery of all aspects to produce an engaging story which carries emotional and professional weight.

Going into the theater to see Spotlight, I had read the rave reviews and knew I was in for something special. This movie did not disappoint! Being from Boston, this movie really made me think about my life growing up, as a lot of "what ifs" came to mind. "What if" I went to church every Sunday..."what if" I was gullible enough to have a priest lure me into his lair. Spotlight goes straight to the heart of this amazingly sad (and apparently never-ending) saga of the Catholic church and the amount of abuse priests have inflicted on hundreds of victims. The acting is all-around fantastic, from Mr. Keaton to some actors that I am not familiar with, which is an aspect of this fine movie that makes it so profound. Tense throughout, I was saddened to hear that this abuse is an epidemic and probably will never be stopped. The exclamation point was when a member of the audience stood up and told the rest of us "...I am a survivor..." WOW...