Review of Spotlight (2015) by Freddie K — 07 Aug 2016

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.".

First things first, I understand that this review is pretty damn late. But what can I say? Just hadn't thought of watching this film until today. Don't know why.

Let me start off with the positives. Spotlight is a pretty great movie. There are some truly golden moments. Mark Ruffalo. Holy motherfucking shit that guy can act!!!! The guy exudes with hard-working passion that adds a lot to this character. Everyone did a fantastic job at acting, top marks to Stanley Tucci and Rachel Mccadams. Michael Keaton was good, but nothing too poignant.

I don't know if anyone else picked this up on their viewing, but there's a lot of references to candy and other childhood pleasures such as gifts and cake in this film that were presented with such a sickly vibe, it added to the constant cold atmosphere and the shame that resonates not just in each character, but the entirety of Boston at the time.

You can tell that the build up was going to be the release of the paper exposing these priests, but what really fascinates me is the attention to how much legal mumbo jumbo you need to process before getting to an appropriate stage in which 1. The Church won't destroy you and 2. Anyone will care. And this doesn't just come from long hours and neglecting love ones, there is a whole meaty segment on these victims who were portrayed beautifully. You felt like the actors had been through genuine trauma.

So what's not to like? The film is a drama, but the balancing of all the workers at 'Spotlight' meant that only Mark Ruffalo was given any platform to express himself. That was a little disappointing. The pacing in this film is drearily slow. The literal opposite of 'Time flies when you're having fun!'.

Nonetheless, Spotlight I recommend you check out (Although the majority of you already have I can assume. It is a cold film about the long complicated road of 'doing the right thing'.

B+.

76/100.