'Spotlight' - possibly the Best Picture of the Year winner

Coming this week, I will post my Oscar predictions along with giving you, my humble readers the opportunity to outguess me for a pair of movie tickets (or something else cool).  In the meantime, I am going to try and catch up on seeing the nominated pictures and post reviews for the films that are still in theaters. 

Still in theaters now is possibly the Best Picture of the Year, 'Spotlight'; based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the Boston Globe's team of reporters who lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the truth behind the sheer number of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church.  As directed by Tom McCarthy, the film takes a wholly unpretentious look at the scandal that is both thrilling and chilling at the same time. Thrilling by focusing on the sheer tenacity of the reporters while chilling in the sheer magnitude and cover up of the scandal.

A powerhouse ensemble cast lead by Michael Keaton as the hard nosed editor of the Boston Globe 'Spotlight' team, a team of investigative reports who sole duty to uncover the hard truths that are almost always ignored.  The team includes the fantastic Mark Ruffalo as the crusading, non-stop and emotional reporter who just wants the truth, Racheal McAdams as the young Catholic girl struggling with each and every truth they uncover and the always powerful Liev Schreiber as the new editor from Florida who challenges the team to not only uncover the priests involved locally, but to expose the system that has allowed these men to remain undiscovered.

The team, through dogged persistent along with the help of a crusading lawyer (the always excellent Stanley Tucci) uncover a conspiracy so deep, they begin to realize that this is an issue that the Catholic Church itself has conspired to hide across the globe.

The very nature of this film could have been used as a device to smear the Catholic Church and for McCarthy to make a statement; instead he relies on the facts, facts that are now well documented, to uncover the truth and we are left to make our own chilling judgement. This is a 4 star chilling look at the power of an organization to cover up it's sins and the sheer power of a few, persistent reporters to lift the veil.  'Spotlight' is a film that will stay with you long after the credits have finished.  Truly one of the Best Pictures of the Year.