• An engaging and detailed docudrama procedural
  • Howard Shore does great work here with his subtle score
  • Academy Award winner for best picture and screenplay and that—and the acting- are the strengths of the film—I’m not dying to see what McCarthy does next
  • It does actually break away from McCarthy’s tendencies in terms of themes as auteur from The Station Agent, to The Visitor to Win/Win these are largely fish out of water stories- I guess you could argue that Liev Schrieber as the Jewish lead editor from Miami and Stanley Tucci as the quirky Armenian lawyer are the heroes in Boston—a foreign land- but that’s a stretch
  • It’s a portrait of Boston- a city- a corrupt machine- religion, money, and politics–  the comparisons with All the President’s Men are apt in terms of narrative (the Catholic Church here is Nixon’s executive) but McCarthy is not Pakula from a directorial talent standpoint and very little of this film’s strengths rest in the filmmaking or visuals
  • The main Spotlight crew of actors is superb- I think Michael Keaton gives the single best performance in the film (riding high in 2014 and 2015 with Birdman the year before—but the entire ensemble should really be applauded- Stanley Tucci is magnificent, Liev Schreiber does his best work, Billy Crudup—as always- we even get a phone/vocal performance from Richard Jenkins who is uncredited (worked with McCarthy in 2007’s The Visitor so probably owed him one)
  • Rich characterizations, accents and mannerisms
  • The ending with the phone ringing is a great scene- haunting.
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2015