Spotlight: Shining Light on International Scandal

        

    Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight won the little gold guy, for best picture, at the Oscars this year and the decision wasn’t to far off. The film shines a light on an international scandal that had otherwise been kept in the dark. In the film we follow the Spotlight team of the Boston Globe, a unit specialized in investigating possible scandals. The team stumble upon the sensitive issue of reported child molestations from multiple priests in the area over the past few decades. With Boston being a heavily Catholic demographic, the reports trigger a lot of controversy. The ensemble cast apart of film are a joy to watch, with each performance raising the bar a little bit higher than the last.

            Mark Ruffalo gives a performance that just can’t go unmentioned. He portrays Spotlight reporter, Mike Rezendes, and is able to capture his personality along with all the strange quirks that come with it quite impressively. You might know Ruffalo from his role as the Hulk, a member of the Avengers. His performance in Spotlight gives us hope that the blockbuster superhero phenomenon isn’t ruining the best actors of today (still waiting on a Robert Downey Jr. to leave his CGi suit). The list of good performances from hollywood's stars doesn't stop at Mark Ruffalo though, it continues on with powerful acting from Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, and the list continues on.

            I must confess before I continue that I am resident of the North Shore and am a sucker for any Boston related film, ranging from Good Will Hunting to The Departed. With that being said, I have never seen a more unique portrayal of Boston. McCarthy skips past the typical aerial sequence of skyscrapers and establishing shots of notable landmarks and takes us right into the streets of Boston. He lets audience get intimate and close to the setting, bringing them closer to issue the film address. McCarthy is able to shrink the large city of Boston into a neighbor. The decision to do so takes the international issues the film confronts, right into the backyard of the audience members.

            A scene that most effectively takes this international problem underneath a microscope is at the home of Brian James’s character, Matt Carroll. He is going through old files of priests with suspected child molestation reports and discover one of the priests to live in his neighborhood. We follow James's character from inside his home with a long winding take to outside. We then continue to follow him, in the same take, through his street and around the corner to the house of this possible child molester. The shot is able to show that this issue is closer to the characters than they think. It creates a sense of urgency in the characters that transfers to the audience. A urgency concerning a problem that can no longer be ignored.  

            Spotlight might be one of the last great films about newspaper journalism to ever be made. With technology changing the way we receive information, newspapers are being swept under the welcome mat. The film is worth a watch for the homage it gives to the hardworking journalists who shined the light on an international scandal otherwise left in the dark.