Welcome to the first DECADE
OF BEST PICTURES series of reviews where we will be taking a look at a
decade of Best Picture winners over the course of 10 days. In this series we
will be looking at the decade of Best Pictures from 2005-2015 in reverse chronological
order! This first entry will be for the 2015 Best Picture winner SPOTLIGHT!
Spotlight is a
2015 movie from director Tom McCarthy that chronicles the true story about the
Spotlight team at the Boston Globe in the early 2000s as they uncover the local
and international systemic child-molestation scandal and cover-up by priests
and the Catholic Church. The film stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel
McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanely Tucci, and Billy Crudup.
I’m going to come straight out: this is an incredible film.
As someone who is a massive cynic about journalism and genuinely believes the
world has lost its journalistic integrity, to see a film about journalists
doing their jobs, and doing them properly, is powerful. Watching this film gives
me a lot of hope and inspiration. For the dying local paper business, that is a
powerful thing. I really don’t think that I can understate this from a social
importance standpoint. Much like the classic film Network, this film tells the other side of the same story and the
pairing is really important. There’s a lot of bad but we need to keep the good
going.
Beyond the social significance, this is an extremely well
made film. The directorial vision, the drab, but real, cinematography, and the
performances are all phenomenal and work to produce a technically excellent
film. McCarthy takes you through this story in a really detailed and
interesting way that feels, in some ways, like a noir. It is filled with the
finding of subtle clues and the frustrating process of having a good idea of
your conclusion but having no idea how to prove that conclusion. Only a great
director could manage what this film pulls off.
The cinematography is also really great in this film. This
was shot by Masanobu Takayanagi who shot Warrior,
The Grey, Silver Linings Playbook, and Black
Mass and he does a brilliant job. There is nothing flashy about it. This
film looks as drab as Boston can look. They have scenes in really stark and
bland newsrooms that somehow keep you engaged. There is also a brilliant scene
in the bowels of a library that are so true to life believable that make this
film hit home even harder with me. I think the choices made in this area make
this film what it is, which is rarely something that can be said for
cinematography.
Finally, the performances in this film are uniformly great,
and sometimes spectacular. Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Stanely Tucci, Mark
Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams all stand out and all for extremely different
reasons. Keaton plays a conflicted and stern newsman who feels immense guilt
that only grows as more is discovered. Schreiber is this quiet and reserved
character that is dead set on breaking through the nonsense to get to the
truth. Tucci is frank and unique with a poignant perspective on the world that
is constantly captivating. Ruffalo is emotive and is the voice of the audience
in the film to a level of perfection. McAdams brings out a sense of empathy
that the film needs and does so with a wonderful sensitivity and brilliance.
All of these roles are so different but they are done at such a high level that
they combine to create a performance piece that truly merits a standing
ovation.
There is basically nothing wrong with this film. I would say
it doesn’t reach total perfection for me because it only connected on an
intellectual level. I love this film intellectually but, though I have some
emotional investment, I didn’t emotionally invest entirely in this film like I
should have. I also thought there was one character (Billy Crudup’s) that could
have used a little more time to get his story out.
Overall, Spotlight
is a magnificent and socially important work of cinema. It wouldn’t necessarily
have been my choice for Best Picture, however the Academy did, seemingly,
select a great film and one that will endure because of the enduring
significance of its message coupled with the extremely high level of filmmaking
on display.
Ryan’s Score: 9.5/10
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