MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Ty Burr GLOBE STAFF DECEMBER 13, 2015
Somewhere along the line, Boston has become Hollywood shorthand for colorful thuggishness. We’ve been living with that, for better and for worse, for a few decades now. But the tide may be changing.
The newspaper drama “Spotlight” has racked up a number of year-end critics’ awards — including, as of this week, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globe nominations, and (surprise, surprise) the Boston Society of Film Critics. It continues to be considered a best picture Oscar front-runner by those who prognosticate. In one important aspect, though, Tom McCarthy’s film has already achieved a solid win.
It has taken the Boston movie away from the bad boys and given it back to the rest of us.
Here’s the thing. Two interlocked aspects make our corner of the world different from other American cities: institutionalism and clannishness. The former is responsible for Boston’s national leadership in academia, medicine, technology, the arts, and other arenas. The latter is baked into the fabric of the place, from the WASPs who founded Boston to the Irish and Italian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century and formed the spine of the area’s middle class, to the African-Americans who, as in most US cities, were historically and geographically roped off from power for decades.
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