Vanity Fair Celebrates Spotlight and the Boston Globe’s Real-life Reporters
By Julie Miller
With all of the champagne and red-carpet ephemera spilling and swirling through Oscar season, it's easy to forget the importance of film. But on Wednesday night, Vanity Fair reminded Hollywood of the medium’s potential with an intimate dinner honoring Spotlight, the powerful drama from Tom McCarthy that chronicles the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation of the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse cover-up. The real-life reporters who attended the event, co-hosted by Barneys New York at the Chateau Marmont, cut through the Hollywood pomp to speak about meaningful matters highlighted in the best-picture candidate. “It says such wonderful things about the importance of investigative journalism, which we very much believe in and which is in serious decline,” said Michael Rezendes, the reporter who is portrayed in the drama by Mark Ruffalo. “And also what it says about clergy sex abuse, an issue that we feel very strongly about, is so important.” Rezendes joined cast members including Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and Brian d’Arcy James at the event, and will be attending the Oscars come Sunday. But even at splashy, celebrity-attended affairs, Rezendes said that he always has the investigation and “the survivors in mind. But the attention the film is getting is all very validating. It’s wonderful.” Because of Spotlight’s significant subject matter, Rezendes believes that the drama deserves the big best-picture prize come Sunday. “This is a movie about something that really, really matters. But it’s not a pill either. I think it’s incredibly entertaining and suspenseful and authentic.”
Ben Bradlee Jr., the editor portrayed by John Slattery in the film, deadpanned that Sunday’s ceremony “will be my first and only Oscars. We feel a little bit like rubes landing in Hollywood,” he added. “But the whole movie experience has been so unexpected and great fun.” Spotlight’s awards victory lap has tacked an additional three months onto a filmmaking process that began some eight years ago, and almost ended this past November when the film was released. “When we first talked to the producers, we kind of thought, Yeah right. It’s so hard to get a movie made,” Bradlee Jr. said. “And then they went away for two or three years and ultimately came back with Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, and the script. Not only did they make a movie, but it’s really good. . . . We were all so impressed with how these actors dealt with dignity these roles. They didn’t just show up and read their lines and get paid. They really wanted to know how we got the story.” Even though the real-life reporters do not seem especially comfortable with their red-carpet rollout, they are enjoying the more journalistic perks of their Spotlight recognition. “I’m getting a lot of interesting tips,” Rezendes said of how his life has changed since the film opened in theaters. “A lot of people are calling me with interesting story ideas and I’m getting like 30 to 40 e-mails a day.” BEST PICTURE The Big Short Bridge of Spies Brooklyn Mad Max: Fury Road The Martian The Revenant Room Spotlight First thing’s first: cross off all the titles that weren’t also nominated for best director and best editor. That leaves four films with an actual chance to win: The Big Short, Spotlight, Mad Max, and The Revenant. Two of those are deceptively angry issue films with modest budgets and ensemble casts, two are action-packed spectaculars featuring big stars, big vistas, and big box-office returns. What does Hollywood’s establishment want 2016 to be remembered for: hard-hitting exposes or big-canvas moviemaking? Normally, the so-called precursor awards would give us a hint, but this year’s results have been all over the dang place. Spotlight won Screen Actors Guild ensemble honors, along with a pile of critics’ awards; Mad Max chased down most of the other critics’ prizes; The Big Short notched the very predictive Producers Guild of America award; and The Revenant snared the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the Directors Guild award. After the BAFTAs, much of the smart (cynical?) money moved into The Revenant’s column, but this one’s as close as it gets. Who should win: Oh, I don’t know! Spotlight, maybe? The Revenant? The Big Short? Mad Max: Fury Road? Maybe we all win because there were that many good movies this year? Who will win: The Revenant? Probably? It’s really hard to tell, guys. — Mike Hogan
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