Spotlight

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.

This is one of the rare movies which is so real in it's approach and the way it was shot. It really captures the power of investigative journalism. It is based on a true story and it has done justice to all the characters who were involved in the investigation. The director has tried to keep the story real and authentic. None of the scenes were over the top or over dramatic. The acting was also spot-on. The movie emphasized on the importance of good and powerful journalism and the impact it can have on the system, which is sometimes so corrupted and cruel.

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.

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 whole movie is like a good news report itself. It tells the story, introduces people, looks for evidence and solves difficulties. Calm and clear, it is said that it is also very appropriate for the real office and living environment of journalists. Of course, in order to maintain this tone, the story of the news itself has been weakened, and the character of the reporter itself can not be deeply shaped.