I almost have nothing to say about Spotlight. It was an underwhelming good movie. It was good pizza. Not great pizza, not bad pizza, just pizza. Solid and reliable entertainment, but nothing special. Competent film-making but nothing that wowed. However considering the true-life-story limitations it was under, I suppose it was the best iteration of the story they could achieve.
One of the powerful moments for me came in the credits, when they thanked the real life members of the spotlight team, and I saw their names lined up on the screen – but suddenly I had to think twice: the names at first were just the same character names I had been hearing the whole movie; now they were being shown to be names of real people, still alive and functioning today. This brought some of the relevance back to the story as well as refreshing it’s date. The events of spotlight happened not so long ago, and they really happened. The spotlight team is still around, and the effects of their work still continue to be felt around the world for what are undoubtedly countless thankful individuals and families.
CRAFTSMANSHIP: The movie, like previously stated, was good. Not great, not bad, just good. It was well made. The sets were very adequate. The period setting plenty convincing, down to the constant reminder of flip phones and horizontal phone belt cases. The acting was sufficient, not quite amazing to me, but showing seasoned actors that could do their job well, and that could give staunchly good pizza some pizzaz.