Gravity of the story, key to the movie success.

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2019)

Spotlight (2015)
This kind of movie probably lives or dies by the power of the story the reporters are trying to tell. In that respect they are unearthing a massive and shocking cover-up by the Catholic Church. It's where this movie and All the Presidents Men succeed and the broadly similar The Post fails.
The performances are hard to comment on other than they are competent and are passive to the story. This isn't about flamboyant characters.
The story itself is well structured and well paced. It's probably 20 minutes too long but then every frame that's left in gives a pathos to the labour of the journalists and so rightfully remains.
There is perhaps no real triumphant "we got 'em" moment or crescendo like in (the inferior) The Post as we know it will be written and while damaging it won't exactly shut down the Church.
It could perhaps have dealt with some of the fallout more directly and been more prolonged than a pre credits line about the cardinal but it is the frames after that that cause the biggest intake of breath.
So perhaps because of its gravity. EIGHT