UNITED STATES
Audiences Everywhere
POSTED BY JOSH ROSENFIELD ON NOV 23, 2015
Overview: Four Boston Globe reporters track down proof that the Catholic Church protected priests who sexually abused children. Open Road Films; 2015; Rated R; 128 Minutes.
All The Pope’s Men: I’ve always had a soft spot for movies about journalism. There’s something innately compelling about good-hearted, determined people on the hunt for truth and justice. If Spotlight brings anything new to this sub-genre, it’s a dogged insistence on denying the first part of the equation. The members of the titular investigative group at the Boston Globe aren’t callous or even apathetic, but the film never forgets that their work is, well, exactly that. Work. It’s their job. Spotlight does its best not to project personal motivations for covering the story onto these characters. They don’t choose to chase this story down because they have a stake in it, they’re told to do so by their boss. Any personal connections they have to it arise naturally as a result of covering it. Spotlight has been compared to Zodiac for its depiction of the journalistic process, but Zodiac used journalism as a conduit to explore the external pressures being exacted on its characters. Spotlight is more concerned with the the way the process itself affects its characters.
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