Spotlight

This year's Oscars were quite spectacular.

Okay, everything that Chris Rock said and did aside, I deeply enjoyed them. Especially because Mad Max won six of them. SIX FUCKING OSCARS, to my favorite movie of last year. I was ecstatic. Sure it missed out on the big prize of the night for Best Picture, but it still won more than anything else. I swear to god, I love that movie...and I'm sure I'll watch it again soon. But, business comes first.

And that business is the Best Picture winner of this year: Spotlight. When this movie came out, I barely had a vague recognition of what it was about. I knew it starred Mark Ruffalo, and it was something about some newspaper, some yelling, and a big conspiracy or something. This movie was not released in many theaters near me, so I didn't get a big chance to see it. Then, suddenly, all the Oscar nominations flooded in for it. That's what really got my interest...sadly, it was during that weird period between it being in theaters and being released on home video. But, I've finally gotten a chance to watch it now, and, what do I think?

Well, first off, Spotlight was directed by Tom McCarthy, and it stars Mark Ruffalo (obviously), Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, and John Slattery, all making up the characters of the Boston Globe in 2001. These characters embark on a struggle of a fight with the catholic church, as more and more evidence stating that numerous catholic priests molested children during their tenure begins to come to light. They manage to gain help from numerous outside sources, including a fantastic lawyer character played by Stanley Tucci, but at the same time, they also receive the expected amount of backlash. The movie pretty much follows them as they try and get everything they need to get the story out on time.

Well, first and foremost, I have to give it to a few key things about this movie: the direction and the cast (I'll get back to that in a minute). The sweeps and long setting takes in this movie are gorgeous, with all sorts of feelings of natural light, and clever shots that make this movie feel so pleasant to watch. I also adore that, except for a couple of key scenes, the movie doesn't constantly try to make you remember that it takes place in 2001. Most movies taking place in the past try so hard to make it blatant and obvious that it doesn't take place today, which really detract from the movie going experience. At least when this movie has to do it to move the plot along, they don't make a big deal about it. It's just playing on the TV in the background.

Now, back to the cast. Oh, my, god, what a fantastic ensemble. I could pick apart one by one the best and the worst, but honestly, they all do so damn great. However, if I had to pick out one from the bunch, it would definitely have to be Mark Ruffalo. The way he played his character, down to a finite point, he just did it so well. You could never mistake his character for any other character, ever (I tried to make Hulk and Batman jokes, but, honestly, Mark Ruffalo was too good to try and compare him to Bruce Banner). And that, "It could have been us speech." That's how you get an Oscar nomination...it's a damn shame he didn't win.

If I had to pick out one issue with this film, and it's a minor one, it's that this is the type of film where you have to stay focused at all times, honestly. It's not that the plot is hard to follow, it's just that some key elements will fly past you if you look away for one second. Then again, you'd have to be utterly stupid to try and distract from this utterly gorgeous movie, I'd have to say.

Spotlight is a very fulfilling movie that's easily very deserving of its Oscar win. I'm gonna give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, just because of that little tidbit about paying attention, but otherwise, it's a golden flick. Please see this movie if you ever get the chance, everything about it is just amazing, and there's also the fact that the story is pretty damn important, and the movie does it such swell justice. If there's any movie that I'm okay with Mad Max losing at the Oscars to, it's this one.