Spotlight

Movie Name: Spotlight

Year of Release: 2015

Director: Tom McCarthy

Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian D'Arcy James, Billy Crudup, Jamey Sheridan, Paul Guilfoyle, Len Cariou, Gene Amoroso, Doug Murray, Darrin Baker 

Genre: Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8

Synopsis & Review:

Actor, writer, director Tom McCarthy is back with another fantastic film, which adds another gem to his directorial career which features "The Station Agent" and "Win Win". The film focuses on the true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that uncovered a scandal of epic proportions in the Catholic Church. The film follows the Spotlight team, in particular the 4 journalists and their editors, who start to slowly discover the story behind the sexual abuse that children have been suffering for decades in the Boston area, all with complicity of the church hierarchy. The team realizes that there is a web of implications from this case, one that touches a lot of different sections of the Boston society and that all sorts of deals and arrangements have being done throughout the years to quietly make the cases disappear.
Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" is another successful film from 2015, following James Vanderbilt's "Truth" to tackle the importance of media and investigation to showcase injustices and issues that are relevant for our society. "Spotlight" is fantastic in detailing the process on how the reporting team investigates a dramatic event in the Boston community, where the catholic church presence is still heavily felt. The director manages to present the reality of the community, and how this shattering event has trickled down through so many families and destroyed so many lives. McCarthy doesn't add any glamour to the research process that characters go through or indulges in any glossiness for the film in general - instead there's an actual sense of urgency, realism and grittiness that adds a layer of relevance to the film that makes it more unique. In a way it's a film that feels relevant not only because of the theme that it showcases, but also of how it's built and how it allows to understand how a community echoes the destruction that is forced upon its members. The cast is uniformly excellent, with particular emphasis going to Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci, both creating layered and compelling characters. A really good film worth watching.