Spotlight, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo

My Favorite Scene: Spotlight (2015) “After Publication”

Sunday night, Spotlight was named Best Picture of 2015 by the Academy, and I’m still blown away.  It’s not often that the best picture is actually the best picture nominated.  The film is powerful and well-done.  It’s a story of journalistic investigation that can only be compared on film to All the President’s Men (click here for my review of Spotlight).  The investigation into the Catholic Chuch priest abuse scandal could have been easily exploitative or anti-Christian, and the film is neither.  It simply lays the facts out of a systematic, institutionalized streak of sin (no other word for it) in what is supposed to be a place of joy, comfort, solace and safety.


The most powerful scene, and I don’t think this will in any way ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, is the last one.  After the publication of Spotlight’s investigation, The Boston Globe was anticipating picketers, crowds and a tsunami of calls to the front desk.  The scene picks up with Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo arriving at the Globe’s offices and finishes with a gut punch that left everyone in my theater (including myself) dumbstruck.
Spotlight, Thomas McCarthy
Michael Keaton and director Tom McCarthy with the real Spotlight team.

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