Movie Review: SPOTLIGHT

Tell the Story No One Wants To

There's always that inspiring story which show the beautiful nature and strength of the human spirit and everyone wants to tell this story, everyone wants to talk about it, it's the one that gets the book deals, the movie deals, a TV series and yes, even a web series. 

While there are true-to-life, based on actual inspiring events films that make headlines and receives the awards and recognitions, There are also also stories that are not being told, the ones that have everyone cringing and hiding in shame. The stories that are not a testament to the strength and courage of the human spirit but instead show its cruelty and corruption. 

Such is the story of how, in 2001 a group investigative Journalists from the Boston Globe discovered a Church cover-up of child abuse by Catholic Priests. Told in an old-school investigative journalism process (interviews, phone calls, research) Spotlight doesn't have the traditional thrill of a typical procedural but the R-16 (yes, its R-16) content comes from the pearl-clutching, jaw dropping accounts of the victims and survivors of the abuse. There were no violent over-kills on screen but I kind of felt like I was watching something equally violent, even if it was all just dialogue.        

It takes the new Editor-in-the-block of the Boston Globe, Marty Barton (Liev Schreiber) who is a Jew and hails from Florida, in other words an 'outsider' to stir the ingredients in the pot and push for the story, ironically, revealing that the paper itself turned a blind eye to the years-long abuse. 

The Spotlight team, takes the reins and goes down the rabbit hole as they spend a whole year, investigating on the story, something that will change them forever. Micheal Keaton plays Walter "Robby" Robinson who leads the team, he grew up in Boston and has no idea that the investigation will take him right back to his school years. The passionate and hot-headed Mike Rezendes is played by Mark Ruffalo, he earned an Academy Nomination for Best Supporting Actor in this role, which I think he deserves. He was so different in this role, it wasn't Mark Ruffalo playing a character but a real journalist and reporter searching for the truth and sometimes getting his emotions involved. 

Rachel Mc Adams is Sacha Pfeiffer who still goes to Mass every once in a while with her grandmother. Mc Adams, also received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this role. She has this one scene, where she's interviewing a priest who admits to abusing children, that is just a jaw dropper. 

Stanley Tucci joins the cast as Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer for a number of victims. It's always  a pleasure watching him on screen. 

The film has received many accolades, winning Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture at the recently concluded Academy Awards, just going to show that you don't need a big budget film that relies on Computer Generated Graphics, or elaborate sets and costumes to win Best Picture. It all comes down to a good story and how it resonates to its audience. 

After the film's release, the Vatican Radio, the official radios service of the "Holy See" called the movie "honest" and "compelling" and said it helped the U.S. Catholic Church "to accept fully the sin, to admit it publicly, and to pay all the consequences." 

Academy Award- Best Picture of the Year SPOTLIGHT Back in Cinemas

For a limited time you may now watch SPOTLIGHT, the Oscar pick for Best Picture, back at select cinemas: Eastwood,Gateway, Powerplant, Robinsons Galleria, and the newly openedCinema '76.

Seeing it this weekend! 

The movie won two Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture in the recently concluded 88th Academy Awards. It also had four other nominations with Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams in the Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role category,  Film Editing for Tom McArdle, and Directing for Tom McCarthy.

In his acceptance speech, producer Michael Sugar said he hoped the film had given a voice to the survivors of the abuse that would “become a choir that would resonate all the way to the Vatican.” He continued with a direct call to Pope Francis that “it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.”

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has praisedSpotlight for its “convincing attempt to show abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic church”. The newspaper published a front-page editorial on Monday hailing Tom McCarthy’s film and calling it “not anti-Catholic”. The editorial said Spotlight, which centers on the work of a group of Boston Globe reporters to uncover abuse by Roman Catholic priests, faithfully presented the church’s attempts to defend itself in the face of “horrendous realities”.

According to Justin Cheng, Chief Film Critic of Variety, Spotlight’s Oscar win is a meaningful victory on a number of levels. It has brought attention the testimony of those who have endured grave abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church — and perhaps, too, it will help hold abusers and conspirators to ever higher standards of reform and accountability.

Spotlight’s Best Picture win also offers a rare and significant validation for the many journalists who have seen their proud profession become a downsized shadow of its former self, bereft of the resources that make such patient, vital investigative work possible. But social conscience alone is never a good enough reason to declare a movie the best of its class. No one disputes that “Spotlight” is an important movie, but its far more praiseworthy attribute is that it so skillfully avoids the trap of self-importance.

After SPOTLIGHT, Solar Pictures is set to release another Oscar favorite TRUMBO,starring Bryan Cranston who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as Dalton Trumbo. He is joined by Helen Mirren and Diane Lane, both no strangers to the Academy.

Turn on the SPOTLIGHT

Okay so before I start I have to get this out first, I come from a cradle-to-the-grave Roman Catholic family and I also married into one. I sang in the choir when I was 12 years old and continued on until I got married when I was 25. Speaking of the time that I got married, we actually had 2 Monsignors and 1 Priest preside over our ceremony. And yes, I also graduated from a Catholic school, from Kindergarden until College. So yes, you get the picture of where I'm coming from and you now understand that part of me, that writes 'Roman Catholic' on the empty box in forms we fill out. 

I'm carrying all of this as I go into the critically acclaimed and award winning movie 'Spotlight'.

Spotlight is an American biographical drama which follows The Boston Globe's Spotlight team's investigation into the widespread child sex abuse cases in the Boston area. You might already have an idea where this is headed-yes, the abuse were supposedly done by members of the Catholic Clergy. 

Movies with the 'dirty laundry' of the Catholic Church is nothing new. There's 'The Priest' and of course the Dan Brown movies, while these are all works of fiction, the story behind 'Spotlight' led the original team to win the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. This is no cautionary tale but one based on truth and hard facts.

The year long investigation of the Spotlight team unearths a decades-long cover-up which reaches the highest levels of Boston's religious, government and legal establishments. Spotlight is a tense investigative dramatic-thriller, which uncovers one of the biggest cover-ups in modern times. 

The film stars, cinematic giants, Mark Ruffalo, Micheal Keaton, Rachel !cAdams, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci and is directed by Tom McCarthy. 

Wolves in sheep's clothing is nothing new, they could be priests or corrupt government officials or polygamous pastors, whatever the disguise, there is always that 'shock value' in stories like these, which make for great movies. Being a devout Catholic and a movie geek - I'm both excited and anxious to see this. I guess I'll have to view this film from the perspective of a human being, one in search for the truth and for justice, no matter the robes or disguises. 

With 79 wins and 111 nominations to date, Spotlight will hit cinemas on February 10 and is distributed by Solar Pictures. #SpotlightMovie