Most Best Picture winners don’t exactly get ignored, but that’s what happened with the 2015 winner Spotlight.
While critically-acclaimed, Spotlight didn’t see much attention upon its release and came as a surprise to some when it took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. If you take some time to check it out, however, it isn’t hard at all to see why.
Featuring a dream team cast with Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and John Slattery, to name just a few, Spotlight follows a team of journalists working for the Boston Globe in a division named “Spotlight” that tackles hard to investigate stories.
Set in 2001, at the request of their new editor, the team looks into the allegations of molestation from a Catholic priest.
Upon digging deeper, the team finds that the story goes much further than they originally believed.
The film is extremely watchable. If the story stretched out to more than four hours, it would still probably feel like a breeze. The plot is engrossing and the cast is full of interesting characters. Even knowing how the story will turn out doesn’t matter, as watching the team dig deeper into the sordid details of how the Catholic Church handled allegations of sexual abuse combines the best of a great narrative and a compelling documentary.
Tom McCarthy, acclaimed writer and director, doesn’t do anything special with his direction, instead letting the story unfold in front of your eyes, letting it be revealed for the audience much like it is for the characters. The entire cast is solid, and while Ruffalo stands out a bit, the talent level makes it hard to distinguish anyone as being better than the other.
McCarthy’s directing may not do anything special, but what he does, he does well. The movie is well paced, easy to watch and thoroughly engrossing.
You may not have heard of it before, but you’ll remember it after you see it.
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