Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
This is film review 3
The Oscars are getting closer day by day and next month, I will sort of be ready, even though ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ was missed. I am still preparing myself by catching up on the rest of the nominees for ‘Best Picture’. ‘Spotlight’ is another one of those films, and it stars the likes of Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schriber, Billy Crudup, and so on.
‘Spotlight’ is based on articles and reports about the controversial sex scandal that happened in the Catholic church, with most of the cast I mentioned in the first paragraph plays journalists/editors working for The Boston Globe. John Slattery plays their boss, Ben Bradlee Jr. who just wants a good story while Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo), Walter “Robby” Robinson (Keaton) and Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams) feel the scandal needs to be brought to light. So along with the new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) they decide to interview the victims and the priests to get some closure and uncover the scandal that most people would have a hard time believing.
If you can remember. Back years ago, the Catholic church was faced with a huge scandal involving sexual molestation of young boys and girls. It’s a disturbing topic that audiences will find uncomfortable and hard to swallow while watching this movie. Similar to the journalists/editors of The Boston Globe, Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (the writers of this movie, with McCarthy also behind the camera as director) also felt the story needed to be told.
Ever since I’ve found out about this movie, I was hyped and now that I finally got the chance to see it, I can say that this is a movie that deserves to be shown. What explains the B grade is that I feel I may have been too hyped about it. I am preparing myself for The Oscars and I was hoping to see a great movie. Like ‘The Big Short’, I almost fell asleep. But ‘Spotlight’ is not a bad movie. The dialogue is excellent and feels real. The performances by McAdams and Ruffalo were good as well. As for Michael Keaton, he did good. A simple and short review. But that is all you need to know about ‘Spotlight’.
I’m sure ‘Spotlight’ is a great movie that deserves recognition, don’t get me wrong. The film delivers us a story that we all were aware of, but needed to be told, and with all the negative news and scandals being projected on televisions everywhere (Ex: The Bill Cosby rape allegations, for one), this was a perfect movie to be screened. ‘Spotlight’ is a movie that will most likely take home the Oscar for ‘Best Picture’, maybe even ‘Best Original Screenplay’. But due to it being a bore at times, I felt like I needed a nap. I do admit that ‘Spotlight’ is at least a good movie with a subject so daring that it could be hard for some audiences to handle.
Jon Spencer Reviews 