This may be a bit premature but I am declaring SPOTLIGHT the best motion picture I’ve seen all year…
Of course, that can change with some yet to be screened Christmas releases, but I seriously doubt it.
SPOTLIGHT is the sensational true and shocking story of a tough subject matter.
It’s title stands for the investigative unit within The Boston Globe newspaper which in 2001 shocked the city by proving the on-going sexual abuse of kids by priests within the Roman Catholic Church.
There was the shuffling of suspected priests–i.e. parking them out of sight and possible legal reach.
And the incredible cover-up by church officials that shook the institution—and for that matter—Boston to the core.
The expose earned the Pulitzer Prize for The Boston Globe and ultimately forced the Archbishop to resign.
But while we’re talking extremely sensitive subject matter here, the film approaches it from a journalistic point of view.
Think ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.
The storyline has the newsroom on belt tightening mode. Advertising sales are on the decline. Cuts have to be made.
Against that negative climate Liev Schreiber is brought in as the new Editor-In-Chief.
And as he now looks over the high expenses connected with the Spotlight unit, he vows to cut it way back or eliminate it all together—that is until he sees just how rotten the church’s manipulation and cover-ups really are and what the paper is about to expose.
Nine percent of all Boston priests were allegedly into child abuse. But how to prove it?
“How do you say no to God?”
Unsealing damaging documents proved nearly impossible with armies of high paid lawyers on the church’s payroll. Even judges preferred to look the other way.
And there was another problem!
Over 50% of the newspaper’s subscriber base was Catholic.
Would this expose turn into mass cancellations? And worse yet, huge looses of advertising revenue for the paper?
Suffice it to say The Globe did NOT back down and against all odds published its findings and won the Pulitzer Prize for its efforts.
Finally a word or two about the film’s cast.
It rarely gets any better than this.
Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery. And Stanley Tucci in rare form!
A tip of the hat also to director Tom McCarthy for pulling off this gripping film.
Look for Best Picture -Best Actor-Best Supporting Actor and Best Directo Oscar nominations here.
SPOTLIGHT opens in ‘semi-limited’ runs.
My score: A.
(Reviewed at AMC Ward Parkway Theatre)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News with E.J. & Ellen on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.
{Yawn} Those couragous “warriors of truth” in Hollywood have been attacking the Catholic Church and Christianity in general for decades.Will a film be made about Jared Fogle and his pedophillic adventures ? I won’t hold my breath.How about a movie focusing on the Rabbis in New Jersey who were convicted of bribery and selling human organs ? {Never heard about that ?} Perhaps we’ll get to see a three-hour epic about the historically rampant sexual abuses perpatrated by mega-wealthy Hollywood producers ? Still not holding my breath.Oh couragous media !
I’m still waiting for the expose on the government supported child molestation of children in schools. The mass cover-ups and extensive legal support provided on the tax-payers dime is astonishing.
It dwarfs child abuse by the CC.
I’m still waiting for the expose on the government supported child molestation of children in schools. The mass cover-ups and extensive legal support provided on the tax-payers dime is astonishing.
It dwarfs child abuse by the CC. All crimes against children are horrendous, but they aren’t all treated equal.
Except for the all time classic “Newsies” movies about newsmen are always slow, boring and moralistic.
I look forward to seeing this film. I am a sincere, committed, practicing Catholic, and the child abuse scandal in the Church hit me quite hard, as it did a number of Catholics. I have done prison minister for 22 years, and a lot of the men I minister to are child molesters. I hate what they do, but I do not hate them, as the Church teaches: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.” So, in truth, I am not angry at the pedophile priests–these sorts of individuals cannot help themselves. My anger is focused on the Church hierarchy including, yes, it has to be said, the late Pope John Paul II. John Paul II was not a bad man, and he did a lot of good for the world. He is the Pope who defeated Communism, he worked tirelessly for human rights, and he did a lot to improve Catholic-Jewish relations. But he was fanatically, fanatically determined that it never be revealed that he did not have “clean hands” on the issues of abortion and homosexuality. (Because of the sensitivity of the matter, I would prefer not to be more specific than that.) His fanatical determination not to be exposed opened him up to blackmail by the pedophiles in the Church–so child molesters had a “get out of jail free card” throughout his papacy. I and all of my fellow Catholics must pray for Pope Francis I as he struggles to repair the damage done to the Church by Pope John Paul II covering up the pedophile crisis. Sincerely, Respectfully and In Christ, Dr. Ernest Evans