Captivating, insightful and gut-wrenching.

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2016)

This journalistic drama recounts a pivotal 12 months of an investigative research team from the Boston Globe, who uncovered decades of systematic abuse against children by the Catholic Church. With subject matter so infuriating and gut-wrenching, it would have been easy for writer-director Tom McCarthy to create a good versus evil arc and give the audience a clear-cut bad guy to despise and deplore. But McCarthy opts for a more intelligent route and keeps the individual offending priests faceless (barring one unsettling and revelatory scene), instead homing in on the atrocities committed by the institution. Unravelling like a journalistic thriller sans the glee, Spotlight is an insightful, methodical and utterly compelling film that provides a window not only into the earth-shattering monstrosities at its core, but also into the mechanics and minutiae of old-school reporting. Understanding that the interactions between the key players is critical to maintaining a level of reality in what would otherwise seem completely unbelievable (despite being true), McCarthy keeps his direction unflashy, allowing the high calibre cast to flourish. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Live Schreiber, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci are all at the top of their games with fleshed out and layered performances that favour subtlety over grandstanding. Spotlight is a brilliantly told true story that captivates from beginning to end, deserving each of its six Academy Award nominations and a place on everybody's must-see list.