Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Spotlight (2015)

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Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 11-25-2015, 09:25 PM:

Excellent film about the Spotlight investigative reporting section of the Boston Globe and its investigation of child molestations by priests. A small group of reporters does a LOT of research, files lawsuits, and uncovers a conspiracy. Journalism shines!

Posted by Carol May (Member # 4068) on 12-23-2015, 10:23 PM:

Saw it this afternoon, great movie. The pacing was good, I was never bored, there were no scenes that I thought were extraneous. All of the acting was excellent, but I was most impressed by Michael Keaton. I always think of him as a weird comedian, but he showed he's very capable of a straight dramatic role.

Posted by Brian D. Whitish (Member # 825) on 12-24-2015, 01:51 AM:

Best movie I have seen this year.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 02-06-2016, 05:44 PM:

After overlooking a couple of stories of child abuse in the local Catholic diocese, new editor on the block for the Boston Globe, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), demands the stories be thoroughly investigated. He puts current affairs team, Spotlight, on the job and Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d"arcy James) get on the case.

As they delve further into the case they find there's much more to the story than the mere ravings of a couple of local cranks and a rogue lawyer stirring up trouble and uncover long running systemic corruption and cover up within the church. It's an investigation which would have implications right across the globe.

Right from the outset, Spotlight looks like a great film. It's economic script has a frugality which, in the beginning at least, makes it difficult to get a bead on precisely what is going on and who is doing what to whom but, rest easy, all the pieces of the puzzle will be laid on the table in the end.

The film is unsurprisingly and necessarily dialogue driven but it's never tedious, being a gripping experience from beginning to end. In this age of the immediacy of the 24hr news cycle and diminishing news media revenue, the film highlights the importance of investing in investigative journalism and the important role this plays in our society.

But more than that, the film bravely asserts that outing wrongs in society is a responsibility of us all and that when it comes to child abuse in the church, we all failed; failed to read the signs and, in some small way at least, failed to act upon them.

Ultimately, Spotlight is a refreshing movie which accepts that it's audience possesses the requisite intelligence to keep up and serves as a prescient reminder to keep our eyes open to the wrongs which occur in the shadows around us.

9 out of 10

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-06-2016, 06:54 PM:

According to the movie, everyone in Boston drinks Harpoon IPA, though Jameson Whiskey makes a special cameo appearance (as it does in The Big Short, the perfect double feature with this movie).

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-06-2016, 09:09 PM:

In the run up to the release, this movie was being compared repeatedly to All The President's Men, but for me it simply didn't match it for the combination of suspense and "everyday credibility" of the characters and sets/locations. Spotlight is a perfectly competent mid-budget thriller, but probably not a film that'll stick in my mind in ten years' time.

One thing that might have worked against it is that the Roman Catholic child abuse scandal has been public knowledge for several years now, and so news of it has lost some of its shock value. When All the President's Men came out, however, it was so soon after Watergate (less than two years after Nixon's resignation) that the details of what had gone on were a genuine revelation to much of the original release audience.