VENICE
Boston Globe
By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF
SEPTEMBER 03, 2015
VENICE – In the shadow of the magnificent churches that crowd this ancient city, “Spotlight,” the movie about The Boston Globe’s award-winning series exposing the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, premiered to sustained applause Thursday.
The drama detailing the newspaper’s dogged pursuit of a story that would rock the Catholic church to its foundation is one of two highly anticipated Hollywood features debuting at the Venice Film Festival in which Boston plays a starring role. “Black Mass,” the saga of South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and his unholy alliance with the FBI, premieres Friday.
Directed by Tom McCarthy and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci, “Spotlight” was well received at Thursday’s press screening, with critics interviewed afterward calling it engrossing without being melodramatic.
A.O. Scott, film critic for The New York Times, said what “Spotlight” lacks in spectacle – it’s about old-fashioned, shoe-leather journalism, after all – it makes up for in artful storytelling.
“It’s a detective story, fundamentally,” said Scott. “It’s very procedural and impressively told.”
In its review, Variety compared “Spotlight” to “All the President’s Men,” calling it “a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account” as well as “a magnificently nerdy process movie — a tour de force of filing-cabinet cinema.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.