unmissable

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2016)

Part docudrama, part social record, Spotlight highlights the crusading efforts by one group of journalists to bring to public awareness the massive scale of child abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests over decades in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Slowly, not only the scale of the abuse, but the cruel indifference of church hierarchy and laity to children's suffering, historical collusion of Boston authorities, and the willful turning of a blind eye by the journalists themselves comes to the fore. This film is compelling and highly uncomfortable in equal measure. The investigation is carefully revealed without ever feeling heavy in exposition. Keaton is superb, and Ruffalo's pugnacious determination becomes the lightning rod for the rising fury of the audience. I came to this film wary of a dialogue-heavy, slightly preachy event. Instead, I left deeply affected, moved, curious, enraged, and humbled by the efforts of these journalists to shine a light on the unspeakable, and reveal the amorality of power. Possibly the best film about investigative journalism since All The President's Men, and a classic in its own right.