Well timed and very well made

Rating: 9/10 (5 May 2016)

Well timed and very well made.
The true story of how, in 2001, reporters at the Boston Globe investigated accusations of Catholic priests in Boston molesting children. Following on from leads, interviews with victims, existing court cases and extensive research they reveal decades of abuse. Moreover, they discover that the issue was far wider spread than they at first believed, that senior members of the diocese were aware of the issue and that the church systemically covered up the crimes.
A well made movie: interesting and intriguing. It had the potential to degenerate into a dull, dry paint-by-numbers docudrama but writer-director Tom McCarthy gives the characters depth, builds the intrigue like a spy thriller and makes a very realistic-feeling movie about investigative journalism.
The director is aided by some great, understated performances from his cast. Michael Keaton is the pick of the bunch but Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Brian d'Arcy James and Stanley Tucci put in solid performances too.
Another factor the movie has in its favour is timing: (alleged) abuse of children by priests of the Catholic church is a highly charged, highly publicized, internationally widespread, current issue. While I do not think Spotlight was the best film of 2015 (for me, that honour goes to Room), Spotlight isn't far behind the best in terms of pure cinematic quality plus it taps into a highly topical issue.
I thus think it is the contemporary nature of its subject matter that saw it edge out the competition for the Best Picture Oscar in 2016, and I don't see a problem in that (despite my preference for Room). One of the purposes of art is to capture the look, feel and issues of the times and preserve them for posterity. Spotlight fulfils this function very well.