GO SEE SPOTLIGHT

I really wanted to make the title more clever, but the sentiment I wanted to get across could not be expressed in a clearer way.

In case you haven't heard, Spotlight is a little film that opened in wide release on Thanksgiving Day and has been catching the attention of critics and the public alike. It's been nominated for over 100 awards so far (including 3 Golden Globes- Best Motion Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director) and has generated a lot of Oscar buzz (the Oscar noms will be announced next week, but the film is on the shortlist and the Huffpost has it as the 'frontronner' for best picture). Spotlight follows the story of the Boston Globe reporters who uncovered the child molestation scandal within the Catholic Archdiocese in 2002. It's an absolute triumph for Tom McCarthy, as well as for the cast.

The reason you may not have heard about any of this is that it's arrival was relatively quiet. Spotlight was produced by Anonymous Content, First Look, Participant Media, and Rocklin / Faust, and domestically distributed by Open Road Films, who distributed Nightcrawler last year. The first word I heard of Spotlight was a commercial that aired after it had already opened, but the film had an extremely successful run at film festivals before it opened domestically. It didn't have the budget of The Martian, the visual pomp and circumstance of Mad Max: Fury Road, or the razor sharp wit of The Big Short (all of which were on my 2015 list and all of which you should definitely see ASAP), and it needed absolutely none of these things to be wildly successful.

Let's start with the cast. Completely star studded, the ensemble stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachael McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d'Arcy James, and Stanley Tucci. Honestly, it's impossible to choose a standout. Ruffalo is a treasure as always, McAdams is equal parts determined and compassionate, d'Arcy James is absolutely a treat, and it's refreshing to see Tucci out of the Hunger Games makeup. Each member of the cast delivered an authentic performance (the time spent consulting the actual reporters definitely shows, and was an incredibly worthwhile investment), and the effect was an incredibly compelling and believable performance. Spotlight's journalists didn't get the traditional Hollywood treatment- they were allowed to be frustrated, disenchanted, gritty, incorrect at times, but most significantly, they did their jobs with a ceaseless determination that seemed neither heroic nor rushed.

The film is paced beautifully. In what can only be described as a slow burn, Spotlight never overplays or underplays the significance of the story it is telling, nor does McCarthy's film pass judgement on the events that are occurring. He simply tells the story as it unfolds, and presents the facts in a way that feels like reading a really good novel. Actually, the feeling is not unlike reading a newspaper.

To say anything more about the plot of Spotlight would be a disservice to anyone who hasn't already seen it, so I'll simply say that the gravity of the story being told means that Spotlight is not one you should miss. I'll certainly be giving it a second look as soon as possible, and I'll be rooting for the film in the awards circuit this year.