Review of Spotlight (2015) by Primeprojectors — 17 Jan 2016

Interesting tid bit, I was a young Catholic boy when these events were taking place (Kind of). Started to fade out a bit when this overarching, all-power, deity can't decide whether gay marriage is a burden on the sanctity of marriage or all his children get his love equally.

Or if murdering people grants me 15 infinity years on fire, or if I can come to his party bus if I just wish upon a star. Enough about questioning the Catholic religion let's talk about Spotlight. Going in I heard that this movie treated both sides, Catholic and reporters, equally.

Also that it doesn't actually make you question the logistics of religion. Either that person was deliberately lying so I'd have a bigger reaction, or he accidentally walked into Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip, without noticing.

This film knows how to set up the sensitive subject, it attempts to "fairly" represent the Church's side in the beginning. We start with one incident of sexual assault, or rather the aftermath.

It's a short scene and it doesn't show a mother weeping over her victimized child praying for the blood of the Pope, while a priest twists his handle bar mustache. It's just one of the head whatevers, talking to the kids saying the priest will be moved and never seen again.

This scene cleverly, and decietfully, shows this as a one-time incident that the church regrets happened. Then we arrive with our main reporters Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) they all work for a reporting group called Spotlight.

They are known at covering large stories and getting to the bottom of them. This movie spends a lot of time with these characters, but it's really hard to remember their actual names. Honestly it wouldn't be that ill advised to say these characters mean very little, at least as their personalities are concerned.

But that's kind of the point; as they get deeper in they find themselves being completely, and unintentionally surrounded by the disgusting reality of what the church is doing. They are simply representations of the actual spotlight crew that found the truth as been around every person.

This films likes doing reveals, appropriately. There are several instances where camera and editing choices reveal the true damage or gravity of this situation. Sometimes a character will just blurt out commentary over the imagery either right away, or late.

Spotlight members relationships with other people can also be spelled out too much. Specifically with someone's (trying not to spoil) blood relative.Also when a Cardinal does something dastardly, the film just kind of shrugs it off.

Those things hurt the film in my opinion. But this film does certainly do a good job of not saying some things, for example the emotional state of the reporters is tracked very fluently. When a character feels panicked, rushed, angry, or scared you feel the weight because what the film is saying is dramatic, and you've been following the characters emotions the whole time.

Those are all the things in the actual writing and directing I really liked, but there is another reason to watch this film. It's subject. Films like these are important things to watch, we can really take away a lot from it.

This film could very well piss you off, if you are a devote follower of God. It tells you that the Church is corrupt, has too much power, and is blindly followed. Or at least at this time it was. It's hard to deny the credibility of the film when you see the final statistics on display in the film.

It reminds me of two things. One, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. I don't think this movie quite utilizes it's full potential like Do the Right Thing, but they both say something that is tough to swallow.

They choose to show the world the state it is certainly in. We aren't perfect but we can at least try to do something. The second thing I am reminded of is a quote from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

Alex is watching brutal violence, rape, and the Nazi regime and he says "its funny how the colors of the real world, only feel really real when you vivid them on a screen". I think he mean we can only learn from what is in front of us.

Well that's it God Bless you.