A must-see movie

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2015)

Spotlight is a great movie and it's a powerful movie. I hope that everyone sees it if only to reinforce the harsh reality that there are evil, corrupt, and powerful people in the world who use that power to increase that power, instilling fear and pain in the meek and poor.
Every scene builds exactly as it must, step by step, increasing in the shocking revelation that not only were some Boston priests getting away with child rape for decades, but a lot of people knew it. Worse yet, the people who had the power to stop it didn't because no one had the guts to stand up to the power or majesty of the church. Indeed, even the reporters at the Boston Globe had to face that even they botched several early chances to stop the abuse, but either the truth seemed too shocking to be real, or their own religious beliefs closed their eyes to reality.
Given the global scope of the child rape scandal, it shocks me that anyone with a strong religious belief could remain an active member in the Catholic church. Possibly the most shocking moment comes just before the end credits, when we briefly see pages of cities in America where rape scandals occurred, then pages of cities around the world where rape scandals occurred.
Michael Keaton is good, but not as inspired as in Birdman. Mark Ruffalo has a good yell to inspire Oscar tremors. Actually, everyone is very good in the movie, especially Stanley Tucci as the misunderstood grump with a heart of gold, and even Liev Schreiber, who plays a man with no emotion about as well as anyone could. The actors portraying the victims do excellent jobs as well, never letting terror or discomfort overcome the need to tell their stories.
There's only one scene that seemed off: a little halfway through, a group from the Spotlight team are in the basement archives, and Michael Keaton doesn't have his reading glasses , so he awkwardly states he can't read without his reading glasses. That's a goofy insert at an awkward time, and could have been handled much more fluidly. Other than that, this is surely a must-see of 2015.