Tight, Unsentimental, and Engrossing Film

Rating: 9/10 (5 September 2016)

With so many movies about investigative journalism elevating their protagonists to near-godlike status, to the detriment of the film's credibility, "Spotlight" is a welcome relief. Focusing on the Boston Globe's investigation into pedophile priests' abuses and the shameful effort on the part of the Catholic Church's leadership - and a fair amount of the congregation - to avoid the problem rather than fix it, contributing to the life-shattering abuse of countless children.
The reporters and their bosses are portrayed as skilled, determined, and dogged, but still human, struggling with their own backgrounds and concerns about their sources. More surprisingly, the managing editors and senior reporters are NOT portrayed as spineless, risk-averse roadblocks so common in journalism movies. Instead, the clear villain is the leadership of the Catholic Church and the lawyers for clients that profited from settling cases ad nauseum for decades, contributing to the abuse.
As someone raised Catholic, this scandal didn't shake my faith in Catholicism but it certainly shook my faith in the institution. This movie is unsentimental, avoiding subplots that would have been needless distraction. In essence, this is a template for movies about investigative journalism.
Also, this is the movie that "Kill the Messenger" wanted to be but instead fell into the normal, drama-enhancing traps (stereotyping the reporter's editors, stretching the facts, making the reporter a martyr, etc).