There are bad things in the world. But not every bad thing needs a film about it.
Someone should have told the producers of Spotlight, a piece of Oscar bait that’s dull, uninspiring and does little more than tell you that something bad happened.
It’s based on the true story of a group of journalists who, while working for the Boston Globe in 2001, began a campaign to expose the extensive child abuse carried out by Roman Catholic priests in the Boston area. The plot is as follows: the journalists expose the paedophiles. Everyone is horrified. The end.
That really is just about all there is to Spotlight. In fact, nothing much happens in it at all, other than the journalists tracking down the Catholic priests, interviewing them and documenting their crimes.
Of course, people should be able to make films about bad things. But there has to be something else to it – intellectual analysis, parallels in the plot and nuanced editing. It is not enough simply to record, like a documentary, a series of events; the writing and direction must also bring something more out of the material. Otherwise it doesn’t really do justice to true events.
There are bad things in the world. But not every bad thing needs a film about it.
Someone should have told the producers of Spotlight, a piece of Oscar bait that’s dull, uninspiring and does little more than tell you that something bad happened.
It’s based on the true story of a group of journalists who, while working for the Boston Globe in 2001, began a campaign to expose the extensive child abuse carried out by Roman Catholic priests in the Boston area. The plot is as follows: the journalists expose the paedophiles. Everyone is horrified. The end.
That really is just about all there is to Spotlight. In fact, nothing much happens in it at all, other than the journalists tracking down the Catholic priests, interviewing them and documenting their crimes.
Of course, people should be able to make films about bad things. But there has to be something else to it – intellectual analysis, parallels in the plot and nuanced editing. It is not enough simply to record, like a documentary, a series of events; the writing and direction must also bring something more out of the material. Otherwise it doesn’t really do justice to true events.