★★★★
Spotlight is a biodrama that chronicles the The Boston Globe’s investigation into the cover-up of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church in the early 2000s. Though ‘journodramas’ aren’t very common these days, Spotlight hits every mark and proves that the potential of the genre remains underutilised, not undiminished.
A large part of this is due to the cinematography. Masanobu Takayanagi’s efforts here do an exceptional job of fleshing out the backdrop of Boston and capturing the unique sense of place that grounds the characters in the story. Similarly, Tom McCarthy absolutely nails it with the direction in the film, and Howard Shore’s soundtrack works well in tandem with these elements, tactically deploying a simple but powerful melody to accompany both the trauma of the subject material and heroism of the journalists working to expose the Church’s wrongdoings.
It also helps that there’s not a weak link in the film’s ensemble cast. Mark Ruffalo channels his inner McNulty as journalist Mike Rezendes. Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James fill out the rest of the team nicely with Liev Schreiber excelling as editor Marty Baron. It feels like John Slattery just reprises his role from Mad Men, but that’s more of a side observation than a complaint.
At first, Spotlight recalls much of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. However, by the end it feels like a lot of themes it tackles have more in common with David Simon’s The Wire than anything else. As interested in the city of Boston as it is the craft of journalism, it’s one of those rare films that’s exactly as good as everyone says it is.
Spotlightis in cinemas Thursday January 28.
