I know, I know, you’re thinking “but you said ‘The Revenant’ was best of the year only a few hours ago?” But “Spotlight” shares the top spot this year, as I think both movies are truly something special. And I never got around to reviewing “Spotlight” when I saw it last year, and that’s because I knew I wanted to make it one of the very, very last reviews I did of a movie from 2015. Why not end the year on a high note? Sure, it’s MLK day, but you get what I’m saying…
What Works: The Catholic Church’s handling of their worldwide sex abuse is shameful, and even if you know that, “Spotlight” still shows you a lot of things you probably didn’t know. It’s brave enough to indict the Church, and also The Boston Globe itself for being slow to want to report on this story. It’s a skilled portrait of just how much a part religion plays in our daily lives, and how that can sometimes be inseparable from even the media who are supposed to be covering any corrupt institution. The pedophile priests are shown to target poor kids who people probably won’t believe, at the same time that those in higher-up positions are insinuating themselves with a powerful class who don’t want to believe. A very good showcase for how corruption has to work at both ends of the spectrum. As Stanley Tucci’s lawyer says “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”
Plus, the directing is sharp, focused, and lets the story tell itself with minimal fuss. The cast near-perfect, but Michael Keaton is the solid anchor. It’s a shame he didn’t receive more awards attention.
What Doesn’t: Mark Ruffalo is the weakest, most actor-y performance in the film. So, naturally, he’s the one nominated for Best Supporting Actor over Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and especially Keaton.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Told Ruffalo to dial down the tics, because otherwise it’s a near-perfect movie.
Spotlight sounds great! I will go see this!