Spotlight: Exposing the Truth

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2018)

Journalists primarily exist behind their keyboards. They poke holes in politician's lies, expose corruption, and in 2001, the Catholic Church's child molestation cover ups. Spotlight shakes the viewer to his core, providing an edge of your seat retelling of the Boston Globe investigative journalists who defied all odds to bring the truth to light. The cast is littered with powerful actors including Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Liev Schreiber. Keaton plays the internally conflicted Spotlight team leader "Robby" Robinson. Director Tom McCarthy has a troubled past artistically. But he proves his merit with Spotlight, casting aside all previous blunders like 2012. Tom McCarthy not only directed, but he wrote the original screenplay alongside Josh Singer. Spotlight's dialogue is clever and slightly combative. The story alone slowly burns and delivers a payoff worthy its Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
From a strict entertainment perspective, Spotlight hits the mark. It accomplishes this without using pulpy details or flashbacks to the crimes Catholic priests had committed. It instead invites you to feel the psychological pain endured by the now adult victims. There truly is nothing I can suggest to the creative team. If anything, I wished it were even longer so that I could savor the catharsis.