If you haven’t seen Spotlight, do! It’s a very well made movie that will keep you focused all the way through.
Spotlight is about the team of Boston Globe journalists who uncovered the depth and breadth of sexual abuses in the Catholic priesthood in Boston in 2002, including exposing enough of those in the hierarchy to make it clear it was a systemic problem – a very longstanding one – and not merely one of a handful of misbehaving priests.
Its focus is the real life work of investigative reporting, the non-glorious, ethics-driven kind that, alas, becomes ever rarer. Most of the film takes place either in what seems to be and is said to be a wonderful recreation of a real newsroom and the archival and research facilities of a major newspaper, or in courts and libraries doing tedious research and document review, or on the streets tracing down and interviewing – or trying to interview – perpetrators, victims, attorneys, and the Church.
The evolution of the story, the calls about when and what to publish, the decision to hold back on exposing the initial identified individuals in favor of tracing down 70 (!) specific priests and their victims, and uncovering cover-ups that extended over decades is what drives the film. Remarkably, the director, Tom McCarthy, while keeping the focus on the day to day pursuit and evolution of the investigation, has made a gripping, fascinating movie. The acting is superb and is a recreation of the actual investigative team that won a 2003 Pulitzer for their work.
Don’t miss it – it joins that small pantheon of great movies about investigative journalism.