Angel and Tiggs

Spotlight is about an extraordinary story told in an ordinary manner. Its brilliance comes not from the fact that one of the oldest and most respected institutions in the world badly screwed up on the background check of its “staff”. Instead, Spotlight focuses on the hard work by a small group of journalists driven by a visionary new editor-in-chief. To me, that’s what made the movie so good.

The Spotlight team at the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer prize for its investigative work. The movie crew and writers tried to add as little noise as possible to keep the film reasonably pure and unbiased. You won’t see phenomenal acting, but a very solid ensemble being as hardworking and committed as the real-life Spotlight team itself. More than solid, in fact. It’s one of the most stellar casts I’ve seen in a non-fiction movie in a while, all consistently solid: Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Rachael McAdams (more and more distant from The Notebook, thank goodness), Michael Keaton, John Slattery, and Brian D’Arcy.

Among worthy mentions, there is Mark Ruffalo. The guy has been consistent for more than a decade. He’s a chameleon, my favourite type of actor. He’s a true artist, more of a Da Vinci, less of a Di Caprio. Spotlight also consolidates Michael Keaton’s incredible comeback. He had an Oscar stolen last year. Although his performance was not as strong as Birdman’s, the former Bruce Wayne delivered again.

Giving the Best Movie Oscar to Spotlight was a fair thing to do. May those who abused innocent children rot in hell.