AT LAST, an Oscar contender to get excited about. Few, if any, of this year’s batch of Oscar hopefuls feel like future classics while some (The Martian, Mad Max) will be forgotten by next year. Not so Spotlight.
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| Spotlight is a beautifully crafted old school journalistic drama |
Spotlight (15, 129mins)
Director: Tom McCarthy
Stars: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
A beautifully crafted old school journalistic drama, Spotlight tackles a Big Subject (abuse by paedophile priests and the Catholic Church’s systemic cover up) without any hint of worthiness, allowing the facts to speak for themselves during a fast-moving investigation conducted by an appealing collection of dogged reporters.
Directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy, the picture manages to avoid the cliches of the genre by refusing to lionise its “crusaders” or demonise the villains and is all the more authentic and powerful for it.
Indeed, the actual perpetrators of abuse are barely glimpsed while the most senior Catholic dignitary featured, Cardinal Law (Len Cariou), who is culpable in a cover up stretching back decades, is presented as a popular and effective leader.
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| Spotlight tackles a Big Subject without any hint of worthiness |
It is the system that is insidiously corrupt, not any individual, and the gradual exposing of that system fuels the drama and sense of outrage. Not that any of us, including the reporters, can sit back and feel smug about ourselves. Society itself is in the dock.
Even The Boston Globe, investigating the story over 2001 and 2002, was not blameless in ignoring the scandal in times past. In the words of Stanley Tucci’s resolute attorney Mitchell Garabedian: “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”
It’s an outsider to the “village” of Boston who initiates the investigation, the paper’s newly appointed editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), a Jewish man from Florida.
The reporters who pick up the baton are the small investigative “Spotlight” team led by Michael Keaton’s well regarded Walter “Robby” Robinson, while chief reporter Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) latches on to the case like a bloodhound.
Some of the most powerful moments come from victims who open up to the reporters. Their testimonies demonstrate the ease with which vulnerable children could be preyed upon and the damage inflicted.
The performances are unshowy but riveting, including John Slattery from TV’s Mad Men as Ben Bradlee Jr, the section editor in charge of Spotlight. His father was the late Ben Bradlee, editor of The Washington Post played by Jason Robards in All The Presidents Men. Spotlight can stand shoulder to shoulder with that classic.
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| 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is a sombre military action film |
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi (15, 143mins)
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: John Krasinski, David Costabile, James Badge Dale, Toby Stephens
When did Hollywood become so keen on commemorating military disasters? Black Hawk Down depicted the calamitous events of a 1993 raid in Mogadishu and several Iraq and Afghanistan-set projects have focused on botched missions, including Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg.
Now Mr Hollywood himself, director Michael Bay, has quietly (for him) slipped out an action film in between Transformers movies about the deadly 2012 attack on the US compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which US Ambassador Christopher Stevens died.
The man so often accused of flag-waving here chronicles a story of abject failure of intelligence, communication and readiness. The Americans are redeemed only by the bravery of a few ex-army special operatives (private guns for hire) who took on dozens of militia in a brave last stand. When we do see the Stars and Stripes it is floating half burnt in the Ambassador’s swimming pool.
There is not much to cheer about then, but 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is a sombre military action film that steers clear, at least in Bay terms, of stoking up unwarranted patriotism or exploiting the scenario for cheap sentiment.
The picture’s big selling point, aside from the intense action, is the not widely known story of “private army” special operatives who rarely receive their due. They include John Krasinski’s ex-Navy Seal Jack Silva who is back in the Middle East to make some extra money for his family.
Silva joins the security team at a secret CIA outpost in Benghazi presided over by an arrogant chief (David Costabile) who insists there is “no real threat here”.
A few blocks away is the US consulate where boyish Ambassador Stevens (Matt Letscher) is optimistic about building relationships with the local community.
Hours later, on the night of September 11, the sparsely protected compound is attacked by a well-armed mob. The film details the events of the following hours with clarity and excitement as the CIA security team tries to rescue the Ambassador before falling back to its base and preparing to face down the advancing mob while efforts to raise support from US military bases in Italy and Croatia founder on issues of protocol and lack of resources.
The action is blistering, if a little repetitive, and for those who aren’t familiar with the story it is an eye-opening balls up in which the Americans aren’t the cavalry.
The film is studiedly apolitical (like a Paul Greengrass movie sucked of attitude) but if there is a moral it’s that on the ground you can only trust real men to make the right calls. The fancy pants bosses? The agents? The Harvard-educated analysts? No clue.
VERDICT: 3/5
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| Youth is meandering and inconsequential |
Youth (15, 118mins)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Stars: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano
Michael Caine has justly won praise for his performance as an ageing conductor coming to terms with mortality, and his questionable life, in Youth but the film itself is meandering and inconsequential.
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino who made the gorgeous but overrated The Great Beauty, Youth stars Caine and Harvey Keitel as two old friends ruminating over past, present and future in a luxury alpine spa.
Unfortunately, attempts at comedy misfire and the insights and pronouncements are less than profound. Says Caine of one girl who got away: “I would have given 20 years of my life to have slept with her.” Oh dear.
VERDICT: 2/5
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