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Spotlight, the new film from director Tom McCarthy finished its long voyage through awards season right where many predicted it to be. The film won Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards, despite only coming away with one other win. It is an important movie, but also an entertaining one and is now available on home video.
Spotlight centers on the Boston Globe Spotlight team’s investigation into the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. The team of journalists, led by Walter ‘Robby’ Robertson (Michael Keaton), kept digging and learned that hundreds of children were being abused over decades by nearly 90 priests. Eventually, they found that Cardinal Bernard Law knew about it and was helping shuffle priests from parish to parish after a victim would speak out.
I wrote a full review of the film here and even after seeing it a second time, it is clear that Spotlight deserved the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscars. These awards are just icing on the cake though, as the film was already an important document that highlights the power of journalism. Spotlight might be accused of turning the journalists into crusaders, but that view downplays key moments, like when Robby realizes that the Globe could have investigated this over a decade before and did nothing.
The ensemble cast is great, highlighted by Mark Ruffalo’s performance as Michael Rezendes. Rachel McAdams’ nomination for Sascha Pfeiffer is still a mystery, but she does a good job in the role. Stanley Tucci has flown under the radar, despite a great role as a lawyer who represents abused children.
Open Road, the film’s distributor, has a home video deal with Universal, which released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 23. Unfortunately, the bonus material is very light. While the listed featurettes sound interesting - including a roundtable discussion with the real journalists - they are all too brief. The roundtable lasts just six minutes and the other two featurettes are about five minutes combined.
Spotlight does speak for itself though. It doesn’t need extras to puff up a Blu-ray. It’s meticulously well-crafted, covering years of reporting in a two-hour block. There’s a thriller in here too, one that will keep even those not familiar with the investigative journalism process entertained.
Check out my interview with Sacha Pfeiffer right here.