The BFS16 #11: Believing in journalism for a couple of hours
Title: Spotlight
Year: 2015
Director: Tom McCarthy
Other: M/14, 128 min, Biography/ Drama
Rating: IMDB: 8,2; Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
All journalists should watch this and be ashamed. Mainly the Portuguese ones.
We already know Spotlight must be a good film since it won the Oscar, right? Wrong! Remember Shakespeare in Love and Titanic also won Best Film Oscars, and we can all peacefully agree they aren't the best thing in this lovely crazy planet of ours. So the best thing to do is go, watch it, and take your own conclusions.
Ok, I won't lie, it's pretty damn good! Not sure if Oscar winning material, but for sure a fair nominee. Based on real events (it seems like a trend this past couple of years), Spotlight chooses to be different, by focusing not on the story itself (though it's impossible for the viewer not to be emotionally involved with it) but mainly on what investigation journalism - REAL investigation journalism, done by REAL journalists who we root for and at the sime time can't help but envy a little - is about. It works almost as a documentary with a deep emotional charge which successfully passes the screen. The script is a masterpiece of construction, with a perfect pacing throughout the whole thing, and the actors performances will got you invested and not want to loose a single moment.
The result is spot on!
