Best movies of 2015: Don’t miss ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Brooklyn’

UNITED STATES
Belleville News-Democrat

BY LYNN VENHAUS
For the News-Democrat

No matter how dazzling visual effects can be on screen, we still crave a good story. And, in 2015, state-of-the-art technology connected with rich storytelling.

We welcomed back some of the sturdiest icons of the ’70s and ’80s – Rocky Balboa, Han Solo, Leia and Luke Skywalker, and Max Rockatansky. We witnessed 70-year-old director George Miller do his best work and a couple of new guys rejuvenate two of our most beloved franchises — Ryan Coogler “Creed” and J.J. Abrams “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Here are my purely subjective lists on the best of the year. Happy Awards Season!

“Spotlight”

This movie gets it right on so many levels, from the way a newsroom works to how sexual abuse occurred in the Boston Archdiocese. It is a powerful, riveting and haunting masterpiece.

In 2002, the Boston Globe special investigative unit Spotlight disclosed an extensive number of pedophile priests and the church hierarchy’s cover-up in 2002. This led to more victims coming forward and widespread reform in the Catholic Church.

A superb ensemble cast shows the methodical, painstaking efforts of a newspaper operation — Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Live Schrieber, Rachel McAdams, Brian D’Arcy James, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci fiercely inhabit the real players. Director and co-writer Tom McCarthy carefully depicts the human toll.

It is not only the year’s best, but the most important film of the year, too.

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