Spotlight (2015)

*** out of ****

I realize that there are a lot of parallels in the story type, but there were a lot of moments during “Spotlight” where I was reminded strongly of “All the President's Men” (1976). Both tell the story of news-people trying to investigate a cover-up, fought by the system and forced to be surreptitious about their activities, and as they go deeper finding the conspiracy is much bigger and broader than they thought.

But that's not the only reason I felt they were similar – just like “President's Men” this film often sacrifices entertainment for accuracy, making it a bit disjointed at times. That's really my only complaint, other than the fact that watching this movie will piss you off no matter how much you already know about the subject matter.

Michael Keaton plays “Robby” Robinson, who leads an investigative reporting team at the Boston Globe called 'Spotlight'. Other key team members are Michael (Mark Ruffalo) and Sacha (Rachal McAdams). When a new editor (Liev Schriber) comes on board in 2001 he assigns them to investigate the sexual allegations being made against priests in the Boston area. Thinking initially that there may be as may be as many as 13 priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors, they are stunned to eventually find 87 different priests in the Boston area that have had legal or punitive action taken against them.

This changes the scope of their investigation in that they stop trying to only identify the priests, but determine if the Catholic Church, specifically the local archbishop, knew about these activities and actively tried to cover them up. Since this is Boston (very largely Catholic) they find resistance at nearly every turn, even as the size and scope of their findings shock and disgust them (and the viewer).

“Spotlight” is a really excellent film filled with equally excellent performances. Ruffalo's rage, McAdams disappointment and Keaton's calm disgust offer the watcher just about every type of reaction that he or she may have regarding their findings, allowing you to really connect with at least one of the key characters. Already being aware of most of the team's findings I was absolutely disgusted in revisiting it, but am tickled to death that it's in a film that is being widely recognized – because this kind of thing continues to go on and the more people that know about it the more chance it can be ended.

While I wouldn't call this a real contender for “Best Picture”, I think that this is largely because of it's devotion to following the story accurately, which sacrifices some dramatic opportunities that the story would have realized had this been a work of fiction. But despite not considering it one of the real “Best Picture” contenders, I absolutely think it is the most important film of the year, and that it should be seen by absolutely everyone. Really a great piece of true-story telling.