Spotlight
Published January 29, 2017
Film info
- Title Spotlight
- Director Tom McCarthy
- Year 2015
- Run time 2hrs 8m
- Genres Drama, History
- Tagline Break the story, break the silence
Academy Award Winner for Best Picture SPOTLIGHT tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious Spotlight team of reporters delve into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 3:19 | I do like the way Americans pronounce Stewart/Stuart. |
| 6:41 | Player coach rather than editor. Interesting. |
| 9:31 | “Go be curious somewhere else.” |
| 13:39 | The Ruffalo character is cute as a button! |
| 18:19 | The statute of limitation is only three years? |
| 19:45 | There’s so much paper in all these offices. Amazing the difference a decade makes. |
| 22:55 | SNAP. |
| 27:55 | “Golfing’s not a verb.” |
| 37:52 | That must be one of the best things about being a journalist - legitimate notebook purchasing. |
| 47:39 | I would not be good at this, phone rings, instantly know what questions you want to ask. |
| 50:44 | Sick leave is one word for it, I suppose. |
| 1:00:34 | They were writing reports about it in 1985? That’s mad! |
| 1:05:30 | He said 90 and it’s 87, that’s amazing stats. |
| 1:06:19 | “You better stop this, Robbie.” That’s a yes then. |
| 1:16:32 | Yep, that’s chilling. |
| 1:25:53 | So harsh to the poor victims, but poor journalists stuck in the middle. |
| 1:33:07 | God, the sobering moments. |
| 1:41:22 | “A few bad apples.” BLEURGH. |
| 1:54:51 | He seems like such a good boss, except for the bit about staying late so much. |
Conclusions
An incredible film, but of course, a terrible story. That the media knew about this horrible crime for decades before they did anything about it, that it is even happening at all, it’s so awful. But, having said that, it’s a great movie to raise awareness and show how difficult it can be to get to the truth when there’s a powerful organisation trying to hide it.
There’s a great cast in the movie, although it was slightly disappointing that we didn’t get more time to spend with them. The small moments of humanity - McAdams trying to deal with her grandmother, Ruffalo freaking out about the delay on the story - those are the things that engage you with the film and it could have done with a few more.
But that’s no real complaint, it was an eye-opening, hard-to-watch but ultimately worthwhile movie that I’d recommend to anyone and everyone.
Rating: 5/5
Rating: 5 / 5