UNITED STATES
River Cities’ Reader
WRITTEN BY MIKE SCHULZ
SUNDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2015
SPOTLIGHT
Spotlight, director/co-writer Thomas McCarthy’s dramatic procedural exploring the events leading to the Boston Globe’s 2002 exposé on sexual abuse within the Catholic church, isn’t much to look at. Its color palette is generally restricted to sallow browns and grays, and even under the fluorescent illumination of the Globe offices, the air is heavy with an oppressive pall. A man racing down a courthouse hallway is the closest the film comes to an action sequence. One montage is devoted solely to journalists scanning address directories with rulers. And to my eyes, Spotlight – scene by scene, minute by minute – still emerges as the least boring movie of the year.
It’s impossible to be bored, after all, when your brain is being actively engaged, and McCarthy’s latest is spectacularly engaging; following its two hours of journalistic legwork and mostly hushed conversation, I left the film’s auditorium far more alert than when I walked in. I’ll admit I’ve got a major jones for entertainments of this ilk, and if stranded on a desert island, could likely survive contentedly with only All the President’s Men and Zodiac for company. But try as I might, I can’t think of a single thing wrong with Spotlight, a film in which the writing (by McCarthy and Josh Singer), directing, acting, and below-the-line craftsmanship are in such harmonious accord that what results is something truly contradictory: a thrilling, even exhilarating account of the mundane.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.