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New Film Deserves To Be In The "Spotlight"

The hype around director Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" has been growing since its festival stops in Telluride and Toronto. Audiences and critics have loved the film and it has been gaining considerable momentum in terms of awards prospects. Expectations were high going into the film, which I sat on for a few hours before writing my review.

I wanted to make sure I loved this movie because it's a great film. It sits at 96-percent on Rotten Tomatoes and many have called it the year's best film and the frontrunner - at this moment - for Best Picture. I put all of that aside when thinking about the film and looked at it from every aspect: McCarthy's simple but kinetic direction, the tight and concise screenplay he co-wrote with Josh Singer, the uniformly excellent ensemble, and Tom McArdle's seamless editing. Having taken time to look at all of the contributing factors that make "Spotlight" so great, I am thrilled to report the buzz is real. "Spotlight" is a four-star film and likely to be the best work to come out of 2015 (yes, there are still a lot of movies to see.)

McCarthy has been a respectable and dependable writer-director for some time. His "The Station Agent" has always been a standout but "Win Win" and "The Visitor" are two very good films. His last movie, "The Cobbler" was an unfortunate misstep for him, but he continues to defend that film, which I respect. "Spotlight" was a great way to come back and create an important and thrilling film and his most accessible to date.

The subject matter of "Spotlight" may prove to be too dark and disturbing for some but McCarthy handles the issues with care. The title refers to the team of investigative reporters, who worked for the Boston Globe and won the Pulitzer for their story. The team is led by editor Walter "Robby" Robison (Michael Keaton), who must answer to the paper's new editor-in-chief, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber). Baron is interested in an article that claims a priest molested a young boy and tasks Robby and his team with trying to uncover a deeper story. The Spotlight team - including Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) - begin to go through years of material and connect with abuse victims.

More and more victims present themselves to the Spotlight team and the list of suspected priests continues to grow. The team soon finds out that there is a much bigger store here; the majority of the victims were told to keep quiet and the church tried to brush any allegations of molestation under the rug. They have a huge story on their hands and spend months trying to tell each victim's story as compassionately as possible.

"Spotlight" is such a successful film because McCarthy never sensationalizes the taboo topic for the sake of making a movie. The victims present their accounts to the Spotlight team in a very specific manner that can be unsettling but the movie doesn't highlight these moments. The importance is making sure the world is aware that something awful was occurring and has been kept quiet for far too long. They want to help to the victims and bring some closure to a dark time in their lives.

The whole cast is wonderful and each actor fully inhabits their role. Keaton and Ruffalo, particularly, get some great scenes to shine in. McAdams is such a natural presence on screen and brings warmth to Sacha, who is fully dedicated to making sure each victim is comfortable enough telling their story. John Slattery, Billy Crudup and Stanley Tucci round out the ensemble.

There aren't a lot of journalists hunched over their computers typing away in "Spotlight." This is a movie about running around and chasing leads, which makes the film thrilling from start to finish. "Spotlight" has been likened to "All the President's Men", the classic journalism film from 1976 about the Watergate scandal. It's a big comparison but "Spotlight" earns it.

"Spotlight" is a film to see with someone and discuss afterwards. It's a movie we will be talking about for some time and will find itself collecting some statues throughout the entire awards season. This is an amazing film.