Tom McCarthy's Spotlight chronicles the engaging true story about the Boston Globe's investigation into the Catholic Church. The film is centered around the newspaper's tenacious 'Spotlight' team, whom after receiving allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, begin a year long investigation. Uncovering a systematic cover-up of sexual abuse, which reaches to the highest levels of not only the Catholic Church, but Boston's government establishment, the team faces extreme pressure as they fight to uncover the truth. Featuring stellar performances from everyone involved, Tom McCarthy's Spotlight is a top flight character drama thats strength lies in its ability to craft thoughtful characterizations of its characters. The film is without question centered around the need to discover the truth, but the way the film slowly reveals the inner psyches of its characters as its strongest aspect. While I'd argue the direction does very little to create a sense of tension or dread, the acting in particular brings a lot of weight to the story itself, as many of these actors, namely Mark Ruffalo & Stanley Tucci, are able to capture the pressure felt by these characters in their performance alone. The script is well written but there are too many times where it lacks the nuance and subtlety to be truly special, letting the understandable anger centered around the Catholic Church's cover-ups cloud its judgement when it comes to nuanced storytelling. Perhaps my favorite attribute of Spotlight is the fact that it doesn't paint out these investigative reporters as saints or saviors, being a film that certainly acknowledges that everyone, including these reporters, is somewhat responsible for looking the other way, in one form or another, in the Boston community. The church's systematic cover-ups of sexual abuse bred in a city that chose to look the other way, with perhaps Spotlight's most important theme simply stating that this is what can happen when good men do nothing. Given the subject matter, Spotlight is a film brooding with emotion, and while I'd argue that Tom McCarthy's overall direction is nothing more than adequate, the film does manage to create a nice brooding tension throughout its running time thanks to its structure and acting. Tense, well-acted, and surprisingly insightful at times about the psychology of sexual abuse and group-think, Tom McCarthy's Spotlight is a compelling story about one of the most haunting cover-ups in recent years.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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