Review of Spotlight (2015) by Joseph V — 26 Mar 2016

Like watching an episode of Law and Order with a bunch of geniuses in the cast. A waste of a great ensemble. Limited director, limited script. All the power comes from it's cast and the subject matter. To those who say it was great because it was sober and sane and not exploitative, I can only say that a movie is not great just because it isn't offensive. Also, seeing Rachel McAdams talk to townies is almost comical at this point. How many Boston movies will mix movie stars with locals in hopes of being gritty? Make a choice. Go with actors or non actors. Or else it does start to feel exploitative.

The script is by the numbers. Keaton is good, but who is he playing? We don't even know if he has a family. I believe this movie won so many accolades because people had goodwill toward the cast and the subject matter-- the newspaper reporters I mean-- and thus, when we were presented with half drawn characters, it was given the benefit of the doubt as stylistic minimalism. But it's actually just paper thin Law and Order network tv level filmmaking.