FILM REVIEW: Spotlight ★★★★
Nutshell – A small group of four journalists in 2001 working for the Boston Globe take on the catholic church, the legal system and establishment bringing the whole house of cards tumbling down revealing the massive hidden extent for the first time of paedophilia amongst priests. The hacks on their way to winning a pullitzer prize shine a light on the whole ‘rape with protection of the ecclesiastical collar’ by degenerate priests that has taken over the media ever since which has lead to 6 oscar nominations for this well put together movie. According to the film 6% of the clergy are at it mostly with young boys so some of these priests must be saying an awful lot of hail Mary’s for all the underage bj’s and ass action they have had.
Time – 128mins; Certificate – 15
Tagline – “Read Between The Lies”
THE GAY UK FACTOR – Nothing in this film will get you off, it’s not meant too but this ‘gay’ Hollywood movie should be supported at all costs so we get lots more like Pride, Milk and Stonewall.
Cast – Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Michael Keaton(The original Movie Batman), Rachael McAdams (Sherlock’s nemesis), Leiv Schreiber (Wolverines nemesis) and Stanley Tucci (Catniss’ Hunger Games nemesis)
Key Player – Both Ruffalo and McAdams are up for oscars as best supporting actors so basically the strength is in all the character players and Liev Schreiber is always good and easy on the eye.
Budget – $25 million; current gross $35 million and climbing fast everyday.
Best Bit – 68mins; The moment when the scale of what they are looking into suddenly multiplies; 13 paedophile priests in an instant becomes ………….!.
Worst Bit – 0.02mins; The opening scene set somewhat earlier and tbh just lays out the bleeding obvious, uneccessary really as we all know by now what some priests get up to in the choir stalls.
Little Secret – Matt Damon was up for the Ruffalo character but chose The Martian instead but both of them got an oscar nod so it’s all cool . Keaton stalked his real life character for months even moving to a house near him without him knowing anything about it. Mike Rezendez the Mark Ruffalo character still work for the Boston Globe spotlight team today.
Movie Mistake – Where to start; in a historical film it is always tough – the modern dorito bags ? the modern Dunkin’ Donuts cups, the modern newspaper trucks, the modern Massachusetts number plates, the modern cars at the start etc and don’t laugh when you hear Rachael McAdams knock on the glass pain of a priests door and we hear a wooden door knock sound.
Awards – Up for 6 oscars, the third biggest haul of the year (behind Revenant & Mad Max) including Best Film, the two best supports above, Best Director, editing and original screenplay. Michael Keaton of course lost best actor last year to our very own Eddie Redmayne so must be really pisssed off to miss out again here
Further viewing – All The Presidents Men, The Insider, The Front Page, Zodiac, Network and The Paper (Michael Keaton again as a hard nosed newshound for the Metro here he alo at one point works for The Metro – coincidence !)
Any Good – An important film on a very worthy subject unfortunately it does know its worthiness a bit. Great ensemble cast and it really shines a ‘spotlight’ on the procedural of what is rapidly becoming the lost art of investigative journalism. Being a true story it has to stick to rather undramatic facts and therefore at no point can it be showy but it definitely holds your interest throughout the endless legwork and data checking. Might not be the easiest watch of the year. The climax is very emotional though and then you are hit with the post movie written credit updates which may truly blow your mind.
RATING – 43/100 (43rd place out of the last 100 films reviewed with 1 being Gay UK filmatic Heaven and 100 being as much fun as your anal balls getting stuck up your chuff)
