"Spotlight" is this year's "All the President's Men"

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2015)

To watch 2015's most talked about movie "Spotlight" is to not only get compelled by its excellence but also to encourage conversation of its dark subject matter. As it is inspired by true events, every detail will crawl deeply on your skin. And it would be a fascinating picture to see it from three standpoints: one is obviously from its aesthetics, another from its morals and last on its stance in religion.
Aesthetic-wise, director Thomas McCarthy intelligently crafted a fine dialogue-laden picture with tense situations and compelling details. Necessary for a movie about journalists, especially about The Boston Globe's Spotlight team cracking the Boston Catholic church sex scandal. Every character is at the same pedestal, proving how every involvement matters. And the wonderful ensemble, composed of Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schrieber, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci, makes up for writer Josh Singer's finely tuned script. At each point when one detail is exposed, a sense of terror is felt in every encounter. Also kudos as well to cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi's camera-work and editor Tom McArdle's pacing that keeps every scene interesting.
When it comes to its subject, the movie takes no sides. Everyone is on the same page, as journalism is amoral in form. And for that, "Spotlight" takes no safe detours on tackling taboo topics. What prevails is doing the right choice. And from a journalist's point of view, this film challenges the audience's stance in morality and rights.
Speaking of stance, for a loyally religious (like yours truly), "Spotlight" is an eye opener. One may get the gyst that seeing this movie will distort one's perception of the Church, given how comprehensive the real-life Massachusetts archdiocese sex scandal was. For the most affected, this should be a wakeup call to stand firm more in faith and tolerance. And for the rest, it is easy to accept this as a dark reality and a worldwide epidemic. But better understand this as a character study/period piece of people under fire from a painful subject matter; and does not reflect every member. And it would be easy for one to comprehend every horrid reality, as Tom McCarthy perfectly assembled one of this year's finest offerings and one of the best movies about journalism.