Fantastic.

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2016)

Another watch on my journey through the Oscar nominees. Spotlight according to IMDb is about:
"The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core."
This movie is stunning. Plain and simple. It's a very simple film, focusing primarily around the journalists at the Boston Globe, but it is still a movie that, more than once, knocked the wind out of me. The story is disturbing and occasionally unfathomable, and yet the film handles it with a surprising level of tact and restraint, while still communicating the story without being "safe".
Mark Ruffalo is the shining star of the movie, there is no doubt in my mind that he deserves his Oscar for the performance he gives. The man is so much more than The Hulk, and this proves it. The rest of the cast do fantastic jobs throughout, perhaps the most surprising (at least for me) was Liev Schreiber. I sometimes forget what a strong performer he is, and this movie reminded me. While those two stood out, there's no denying that the entire cast delivers strong, and genuine performances throughout. You feel some genuine anger and heartbreak coming through, and given the subject matter that's no surprise.
Again the movie is simple, but effective and extremely well paced. It doesn't feel like a two hour movie, and it delivers an incredible and deep story from start to finish.
There's not much more that I want to say about this, except to recommend it wholeheartedly. The performances are great, the story is fascinating and infuriating, and it's not one to be missed this year.
The movie is nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, Best Directing, Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), and Best Supporting Actress (Rachael McAdams).
As well, in the interest of consistency, I kept an eye on the total number of speaking characters in this movie who are not cisgendered, white, straight men, who offer any kind of significant plot progression. In the case of Spotlight sits at one, being Rachael McAdams, though her character has the smallest presence in the film. Something to think about.