Burns slow, but riveting to the end

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2016)

Garnered awards and horrifying subject matter put aside, take a look at the movie poster for "Spotlight". It's a still image of the principal cast hovered over a cluttered desk in a small room. It's not flashy, but still an incredibly effective piece of advertising. You know in an instant that this is a journalism movie; die-hards in rolled-up shirtsleeves working all hours to unearth a national scandal. I am an absolute sucker for this.
The scandal herein is the systemic cover-up of pederasty within the Catholic Church. To that end (even though a lot of the dialogue in this movie is come-from-behind startling), one line in particular jumped out at me: "They say it's just physical abuse but it's more than that, this was spiritual abuse. You know why I went along with everything? Because priests are supposed to be the good guys." This isn't just a story about the crimes committed, but there's also sensitivity towards the victims themselves. I dunno, I just found that line deeply unnerving.
But when all is said and done, this movie runs on the grueling nuts-and-bolts detective work of investigative journalism; a uniformly excellent cast, great writing and tension that continues to build.
Amazing stuff.
9/10