TonyWatchesMovies Movie Review: Spotlight: 8.5 out of 10

I am by no means a spiritual person. If you were to ask where people go when they die, I would be a good little atheist and say that we simply stop living on this earth, that there isn't really a place that we go when we die. However, the idea of God (or gods) hasn't ever truly been something I've fully renounced. For every new thing we know, there's about 10 things we probably don't, and God could be one of those things. However, the idea of the Church is something that I've never recognized, and in fact I find as many chances as I can to condemn them. The Church is an institution that I believe shouldn't have as much power as it does, and every time I read about them on the news, all I see is an organization with power and influence doing what they wish with an ever-expanding arm, an inexaustable amount of funds and the faith of billions of people to push their own agenda. They constantly try to revoke the power of homosexual citizens, they infringe on human rights, and what's more, they constantly get away with child molestation in almost EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY. And the fact that the Church has such an influence in government is absurd to me. An institution responsible for multiple Crusades, the imprisonment and murder of scientists and the burning of women should not be anywhere NEAR a governmental body.

TonyWatchesMovies Score: 8.5 out of 10

Apologies, somebody only has to say "Church" around me and I go off. After so many written accounts of their plights, they still hold so much power, and in Spotlight, several journalist do their civic duty and write an exposé on the multitudes of child abuse in Boston churches. I'm surprised I didn't hear about this story at the time, or perhaps after the fact. It's such an incredible story, and in Spotlight it's told very well. Nothing really moves too fast, it was easy to follow the story and the twists and turns that happen throughout, and the characters were very well rounded and clear. However, I was really sad that it ended where it did. They had just published the story (spoilers, I guess?), people start calling in with allegations, then it ends with a text scroll. BAAAHHHH I wish they had continued, I don't mind sitting through a 3 hour movie if the story is really good (see Hateful 8), and I wish this movie was 3 hours so I could see the impact it had on not only the Boston community but the rest of the world.

I was SO HAPPY about Mark Ruffalo in this movie. I've always felt that he's shined outside of superhero roles (Zodiac, Shutter Island, Foxcatcher), and in this one he certainly did. You could really feel that he was a reporter in this movie, that he was jumping through all of the necessary hoops to get anything that could work for their case/article, and in the end it payed off. After all the work that not only Mark Ruffalo did but the rest of the Spotlight newsroom did as well, you really felt a sense of relief when the article was finally done and posted. It felt like weight was lifted off of my chest, and in a film that's a difficult thing to achieve. Well done to the cast, all of them, well done.

One thing always kinda makes me uneasy about movies like this, and it's that there's a thought at the back of my mind that at least half of the events that actually transpired were left out of the film. It happens all of the time in movies based on real life, and it's simply because they can't fit all of the information about the event in the amount of time that they can hold an audience's attention. Which is fine, I know that people get bored easily and stories like these are difficult to get emotionally invested in unless you're a local (sorry, generalization). I guess this is just a feeling that always comes with movies like these, I can't blame Spotlight for that.

Great movie, I recommend it to all of you.

Cheers,

-TonyWatchesMovies