NEW ZEALAND
The Aucklander
John Cousins
John is a senior reporter at the Bay of Plenty Times
The gritty realism of double Academy award winning movie Spotlight is a reminder of what can be achieved when the writers, director and cast stay resolutely true to the ideals of storytelling.
Spotlight would have failed the emotional test if it had succumbed to over dramatising the true story of how Boston reporters revealed the shocking extent of sexual abuse by priests.
Instead, the sure hand of co-writer and director Tom McCarthy delivered a gut-churning cinematic tour-de-force in which the grown-up victims of the sordid sexual predilections of priests helped grafting reporters from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team to lift the lid.
Everywhere in Spotlight are glimpses of pathos and human frailty, balanced against the determination of the church’s hierarchy and their civilian allies to keep the sins of priests institutionalised.
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