Spotlight (2015): Keaton, Ruffalo, Boston, Journalists, Priests

Weird, I just watched this yesterday as well and bookmarked this thread.
Admittedly I'm a sucker for procedural stuff but I think the 'basic'-ness of it is... kind of the point? There wasn't really any smoking gun, everyone knew a piece of what was going on, the one priest shown didn't deny it, it's going on, all the time, and why isn't anyone stopping it when there are mechanisms to do so? (Actually this would have been a good direction to have gone stronger on in the movie - there's lots of 'don't cross the church' but I think it's kind of vague and in the end they did and presumably no-one got "fair game"-d?)

I think keatons social scenes do tbh serve this function very well but plenty itt seem not to have gotten what i did from them

I think the 'basic'-ness of it is... kind of the point?

I know, and I feel silly complaining about it--it's kind of a banality-of-evil story, captured best by the one ex-priest who shrugs his shoulders and says "Yeah, I did, but I wasn't gratified."

Nonetheless, it just doesn't compel me the way Zodiac and All the President's Men do.

Sorry, you mentioned the priest yourself.

The most harrowing account of the same subject matter I've ever seen is the Canadian film The Boys of St. Vincent.

I didn't like how there was so much focus on the journalists uncovering the story, rather than the actual story itself. I thought it was especially jarring considering the subject matter.

I've also rewatched Zodiac and ATPM fairly recently, and they are excellent - far more engaging for sure.
I think I just appreciate when, on occasion, information recounting events is relayed in a nice straightforward way without unnecessary twists or forced peril - but then again I can't really imagine rewatching it for any reason.

xp Good point. i guess there were so many victims. The bit about many no longer being around stuck with me.

Its a movie about the journalists and the structure within which the people in the story might actually be implicit to whatever degree in an ongoing issue of this type

And whatever about ones appetite for drama, ATPM and Zodiac are not that, they are classic flashy outsider "why isnt everyone a pure genius railing against this system like me, man!?" tales

That one wins out and one fades away frustrated in the end doesn't change that neither asks the questions spotlight does

Thought this was bumped because Phil Saviano, the first victim to speak up to the Globe, passed away on Sunday.

Watching again (its a good quiet night half watch) and the supporting/incidental cast are really exceptional in this

This is getting the Michael Clayton revivalism.

Keaton in this is Keaton-acting in birdman tho, hes bad

wait I'm confused -- he's bad in Spotlight?

This is getting the Michael Clayton revivalism.

― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.),

Middlebrow approval suddenly leaks down to hip level?

Yeah i think hes up and down in this, sometimes in tune and sometimes full of acting swagger

xp yeah, more or less

Keaton and the rest are fine because McCarthy largely sticks to the Bresson dictum of don't-act-behave.

Mark Ruffalo is the apostate.

Id have agreed with that on previous viewings

This time ruffalo is agreeable and keaton is less so