One of my favorite activities is watching movies. As a result, I will probably be posting several articles that act as reviews and commentaries on films I have watched recently. These may be either new releases or older ones I have discovered or rediscovered over the previous week.
Christmas is a time full of traditions. For my family, these include going to Christmas Eve Mass, hosting both Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day brunch, and then recovering from the job by lounging around and watching movies or playing games for the rest of the afternoon into the night. The movies are usually rather simple -- mostly comedies from the '80s that my family loves (The Blues Brothers, the first R-rated movie I ever saw, has been common for the past few years). However, as I have been away at school with little access to the more limited released films, I had some catching up to do and decided Christmas night would be a good time to go to the theater to see one of them. The Landmark Theater at Plaza Frontenac plays a lot of these hidden gems of the year and the employees will probably be sick of me by the end of this break. The movie I chose to see Christmas night was Spotlight.
Directed by Tom McCarthy, the movie follows the work of The Boston Globe's investigative team "Spotlight" as they are assigned by the newspaper's new editor (played by Liev Schreiber, known for his role in Ray Donovan, playing a much more reserved role here) to investigate a potential cover up of the abuse of children by certain priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. As the investigation unfolds, the team of four reporters is stunned by the scope of the scandal and the efforts by the institution to cover their tracks, in addition to facing difficulties from the city's lack of cooperation.
On an artistic level, this movie is a masterpiece. The writing is quick but never too speedy, moving the dense story and journalistic narrative along at a pace that gives a reportedly accurate account of the events. Each performance from the cast is stellar, especially the two main actors. Michael Keaton, formerly known best as Batman and the lead in comedy films from the '80s (he might have showed up during any other Christmas movie marathoning), continues to revive his career after giving an Oscar-worthy performance in Birdman last year with another anchoring performance here. As Walter "Robby" Robinson, the editor and self-titled "player-coach" of the "Spotlight" team, his work is rather reminiscent of the understated work Jason Robards won an Oscar for in All the President's Men as the editor for the investigation of the Watergate Scandal, another investigative journalism movie about a story a lot of people did not want to have revealed to the public. Mark Ruffalo plays one of the other reporters, showing once again why he is one of the most consistently effective actors working today. There is an honesty to his character, combining devotion to his job with the frustration of a lapsed Catholic shocked and angered by the discoveries he is making. In this way he may act as a mirror for the audience, although the investigation is displayed in an unbiased way that looks for the facts over politics.
In terms of direction, acting, writing, and editing, Spotlight is brilliant. It is also brilliant in the way it raises discussion in an authentic way. It shows the flaw in a very human institution, as well as the possibility for people in power to abuse that power. Additionally, the question of separation of church and state is displayed. Being a Catholic from St. Louis, the Church has a big presence in the city, but seeing how the Church works in Boston shows that it is much more significant in other places. Such a heavy influence from the Church is not a good thing, creating difficulty for an unbiased decision if personal beliefs are not kept out of it to reach the ultimately best decision. The film's strength, as stated before, is the way McCarthy shows the audience by integrating them into the established city, with Schreiber's editor as an outsider being used to fill in the blanks and bring the audience into the more small-town feel of the big city.
There are certain movies that only need to be watched once. The importance of the story these movies tell earns them the viewing, but the difficulty of the subject matter makes it difficult for one to imagine ever viewing it again. I put a few movies in this category, including 12 Years a Slave. Now Spotlight has this distinction for me as well. Much like Steve McQueen's film from two years ago, however, Spotlight is not just a difficult movie that discusses an important subject. It is also the most technically accomplished film of its release year.
