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Venice Film Review: ‘Spotlight’
UNITED STATES
Variety
Justin Chang
Chief Film Critic
@JustinCChang
It’s not often that a director manages to follow his worst film with his best, but even if he weren’t rebounding from “The Cobbler,” Tom McCarthy would have a considerable achievement on his hands with “Spotlight,” a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the widespread pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church. Very much in the “All the President’s Men”/“Zodiac” mold of slow-building, quietly gripping journalistic procedurals, this measured and meticulous ensemble drama sifts through a daunting pile of evidence to expose not just the Church’s horrific cycles of abuse and concealment, but also its uniquely privileged position in a society that failed its victims at myriad personal, spiritual and institutional levels. The result may be more sobering and scrupulous than it is cathartic or revelatory, but with its strong narrative drive and fine cast, “Spotlight” should receive more than a fair hearing with smarthouse audiences worldwide.
As with so many movies drawn from controversial real-life events, any attempt at damage control by the organization under scrutiny could merely wind up boosting the film’s commercial and cultural profile when Open Road releases it Nov. 6 Stateside. As such, Catholic officials might be disinclined to take up arms against “Spotlight” as vocally as they did with “Philomena” (2013), which invited legitimate criticism with its cartoonishly villainous Irish nuns and other dramatic liberties. McCarthy’s picture is all the more authoritative for its comparative restraint: Perhaps realizing the number of different ways they could have tackled a narrative of this density, the director and his co-writer, Josh Singer (“The Fifth Estate”), have shrewdly limited themselves to the journalists’ perspective, ensuring that everything we learn about the scandal comes to us strictly through the Globe’s eyes and ears.
There are no triumphant, lip-smacking confrontations here, no ghoulish rape flashbacks or sensationalistic cutaways to a sinister clerical conspiracy behind closed doors. There is only the slow and steady gathering of information, the painstaking corroboration of hunches and leads, followed by a sort of slow-dawning horror as the sheer scale of the epidemic comes into focus. When a reporter notes that he’d love to see the looks on the faces of Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou) and other Boston Archdiocese officials, it’s a measure of the film’s rigor that it refuses to oblige.
Variety
Justin Chang
Chief Film Critic
@JustinCChang
It’s not often that a director manages to follow his worst film with his best, but even if he weren’t rebounding from “The Cobbler,” Tom McCarthy would have a considerable achievement on his hands with “Spotlight,” a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the widespread pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church. Very much in the “All the President’s Men”/“Zodiac” mold of slow-building, quietly gripping journalistic procedurals, this measured and meticulous ensemble drama sifts through a daunting pile of evidence to expose not just the Church’s horrific cycles of abuse and concealment, but also its uniquely privileged position in a society that failed its victims at myriad personal, spiritual and institutional levels. The result may be more sobering and scrupulous than it is cathartic or revelatory, but with its strong narrative drive and fine cast, “Spotlight” should receive more than a fair hearing with smarthouse audiences worldwide.
As with so many movies drawn from controversial real-life events, any attempt at damage control by the organization under scrutiny could merely wind up boosting the film’s commercial and cultural profile when Open Road releases it Nov. 6 Stateside. As such, Catholic officials might be disinclined to take up arms against “Spotlight” as vocally as they did with “Philomena” (2013), which invited legitimate criticism with its cartoonishly villainous Irish nuns and other dramatic liberties. McCarthy’s picture is all the more authoritative for its comparative restraint: Perhaps realizing the number of different ways they could have tackled a narrative of this density, the director and his co-writer, Josh Singer (“The Fifth Estate”), have shrewdly limited themselves to the journalists’ perspective, ensuring that everything we learn about the scandal comes to us strictly through the Globe’s eyes and ears.
There are no triumphant, lip-smacking confrontations here, no ghoulish rape flashbacks or sensationalistic cutaways to a sinister clerical conspiracy behind closed doors. There is only the slow and steady gathering of information, the painstaking corroboration of hunches and leads, followed by a sort of slow-dawning horror as the sheer scale of the epidemic comes into focus. When a reporter notes that he’d love to see the looks on the faces of Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou) and other Boston Archdiocese officials, it’s a measure of the film’s rigor that it refuses to oblige.
‘Spotlight’ Shines in Venice Film Festival
VENICE
Sciclonic
Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight made a highlight in Venice today, bringing happiness in director’s squad. The film is said to be superbly controlled drama.
Spotlight is about The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States, and their coverage of the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal, for which The Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.
McCarthy and stars Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci said they hoped Pope Francis would get to see the film that traces the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation into a sex abuse and corruption scandal which rocked a city, and one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions.
Ruffalo expressed they were all “hoping that the pope and the Vatican use this very, very sober and judicious story to begin to heal the wounds that the church also received.”Spotlight is “a perfect opportunity” for the Vatican “to begin to right these wrongs, not just for the victims and their destroyed lives, but for all the people who’ve lost a way to order a chaotic world for themselves.”
Sciclonic
Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight made a highlight in Venice today, bringing happiness in director’s squad. The film is said to be superbly controlled drama.
Spotlight is about The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States, and their coverage of the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal, for which The Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.
McCarthy and stars Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci said they hoped Pope Francis would get to see the film that traces the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation into a sex abuse and corruption scandal which rocked a city, and one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions.
Ruffalo expressed they were all “hoping that the pope and the Vatican use this very, very sober and judicious story to begin to heal the wounds that the church also received.”Spotlight is “a perfect opportunity” for the Vatican “to begin to right these wrongs, not just for the victims and their destroyed lives, but for all the people who’ve lost a way to order a chaotic world for themselves.”
'Spotlight': Venice Review
VENICE
The Hollywood Reporter
The Bottom Line
An explosive topic gets a prosaic treatment.
Venue
Venice Film Festival
Opens
November 6 (Open Road)
Cast
Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery
Director
Tom McCarthy
Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams play Boston Globe reporters trying to expose a cover-up of sexually abusive priests in Tom McCarthy's fact-based drama.
A would-be All the Cardinal's Men, the less-than-resonantly titled Spotlight makes a dry affair of the sensational story of a small circle of Boston Globe journalists who, more than a decade ago, exposed the Roman Catholic church's institutional protection of sexually abusive priests. As numerous notable films have demonstrated, the spectacle of lowly scribes bringing down the great and powerful can make for exciting, agitating cinema, but director and co-writer Tom McCarthy's fifth feature is populated with one-dimensional characters enacting a connect-the-dots screenplay quite devoid of life's, or melodrama's, juices, which are what distantly motivate this story in the first place. Virtuous only by nature of its subject matter, this Open Road release, set to open in November, might have been more at home on the small screen.
It was a very big deal indeed when the church was finally called to account for its history of looking the other way or quietly shuffling misbehaving clergy off to obscure parishes when caught with their robes up or pants down. It was virtually unthinkable to the city's fifty percent Catholic population that the trail would lead all the way to the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002 when faced with numerous irrefutable first-hand testimonies.
To tell the story, McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer (the dreary The Fifth Estate) focus on the small investigative "Spotlight" team of Globe reporters, who routinely worked on stories for months and wouldn't give up on this one until their chain of evidence was complete and unbreakable. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don't make them interesting and distinctive people, and the uniformly excellent actors playing them can't bring them to life all by themselves. The truly dramatic story here lies off-screen and to a great degree in the past, while the journalists' work consists mostly of persistence, constant grinding and not having a life until the job is done. (And maybe not even then.)
The Hollywood Reporter
The Bottom Line
An explosive topic gets a prosaic treatment.
Venue
Venice Film Festival
Opens
November 6 (Open Road)
Cast
Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery
Director
Tom McCarthy
Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams play Boston Globe reporters trying to expose a cover-up of sexually abusive priests in Tom McCarthy's fact-based drama.
A would-be All the Cardinal's Men, the less-than-resonantly titled Spotlight makes a dry affair of the sensational story of a small circle of Boston Globe journalists who, more than a decade ago, exposed the Roman Catholic church's institutional protection of sexually abusive priests. As numerous notable films have demonstrated, the spectacle of lowly scribes bringing down the great and powerful can make for exciting, agitating cinema, but director and co-writer Tom McCarthy's fifth feature is populated with one-dimensional characters enacting a connect-the-dots screenplay quite devoid of life's, or melodrama's, juices, which are what distantly motivate this story in the first place. Virtuous only by nature of its subject matter, this Open Road release, set to open in November, might have been more at home on the small screen.
It was a very big deal indeed when the church was finally called to account for its history of looking the other way or quietly shuffling misbehaving clergy off to obscure parishes when caught with their robes up or pants down. It was virtually unthinkable to the city's fifty percent Catholic population that the trail would lead all the way to the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law, who resigned in 2002 when faced with numerous irrefutable first-hand testimonies.
To tell the story, McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer (the dreary The Fifth Estate) focus on the small investigative "Spotlight" team of Globe reporters, who routinely worked on stories for months and wouldn't give up on this one until their chain of evidence was complete and unbreakable. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don't make them interesting and distinctive people, and the uniformly excellent actors playing them can't bring them to life all by themselves. The truly dramatic story here lies off-screen and to a great degree in the past, while the journalists' work consists mostly of persistence, constant grinding and not having a life until the job is done. (And maybe not even then.)
Hollywood casts uncomfortable Spotlight on Church abuse
VENICE
Times LIVE (South Africa)
Angus MACKINNON and Giovanni Grezzi | 03 September, 2015
Pope Francis still has to prove the Church is serious about addressing sex abuse by priests, according to the director of a major new film about how the damaging scandal was exposed in the United States.
Tom McCarthy's Spotlight, a newsroom drama that focuses on how the Boston Globe broke a local story that was to become a global crisis for the Church, had its premiere on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as key members of the Globe's investigations team, the film recounts the paper's pursuit of evidence of how the local Catholic hierarchy, headed by Cardinal Bernard Law, systematically and, at times, cynically, covered up for abusive priests in their midst.
By the time the Globe's team had earned their Pulitzer Prize it had become clear that the Church in the Boston area had, for years, harboured more than 70 predatory paedophiles, shuffling them from parish to parish when the rumours got too loud and acting swiftly to ensure any legal suits were settled silently and secretly.
After the story went to press in early 2002, the number of victims willing to testify to having been abused rose to a total of nearly 1,500, lifting the lid on the scale of a scourge the Church had spent decades dismissing as limited to a few rotten apples.
Times LIVE (South Africa)
Angus MACKINNON and Giovanni Grezzi | 03 September, 2015
Pope Francis still has to prove the Church is serious about addressing sex abuse by priests, according to the director of a major new film about how the damaging scandal was exposed in the United States.
Tom McCarthy's Spotlight, a newsroom drama that focuses on how the Boston Globe broke a local story that was to become a global crisis for the Church, had its premiere on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as key members of the Globe's investigations team, the film recounts the paper's pursuit of evidence of how the local Catholic hierarchy, headed by Cardinal Bernard Law, systematically and, at times, cynically, covered up for abusive priests in their midst.
By the time the Globe's team had earned their Pulitzer Prize it had become clear that the Church in the Boston area had, for years, harboured more than 70 predatory paedophiles, shuffling them from parish to parish when the rumours got too loud and acting swiftly to ensure any legal suits were settled silently and secretly.
After the story went to press in early 2002, the number of victims willing to testify to having been abused rose to a total of nearly 1,500, lifting the lid on the scale of a scourge the Church had spent decades dismissing as limited to a few rotten apples.
‘Spotlight’ Could Finally Bring Open Road a Best Pic Nom
UNITED STATES
Variety
Kristopher Tapley
Co-Awards Editor
@kristapley
Since launching in 2011 through a partnership between theater chains AMC Theatres and Regal Entertainment Group, distributor Open Road Films has amassed a sui generis blend of often genre-leaning product that stands apart from the competition. Movies like Joe Carnahan’s “The Grey” (longtime readers will recall my affinity for that, the best film of 2012) and Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects” were favorably received by critics, while others like Jon Favreau’s “Chef” were hits as well. But none truly flirted with the awards season until last year’s “Nightcrawler.”
Nevertheless, Dan Gilroy’s broadcast news thriller came up short, too. It picked up surprise notices from the producers and screen actors guilds and was, for obvious reasons, adored by press and critics groups. But only the writers branch of the Academy spoke up for it come Oscar time. It was a scathing film, one that packed a heavy and cynical punch — perhaps too cynical. Maybe voters had trouble embracing that. Maybe they struggled between Jake Gyllenhaal’s uncanny performance and another creepy depiction in the field, Steve Carell’s in “Foxcatcher.” Or maybe the high simply wore off as films like “American Sniper” came along to rally support toward the end.
Whatever the case, it’s interesting to note that the company will be back this season with yet another pulse-quickening tale of journalists on the beat, albeit one that colors the profession in a much more noble light. And that could make all the difference. Indeed, Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” has a real shot at becoming Open Road’s first best picture nominee to date.
After testing through the roof this summer, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival Thursday and is expected to screen in Telluride this weekend before moving on to Toronto. A focused, dialed-down account of shoe-leather reporting at its finest, it’s one of the great newsroom dramas. And it will be sweet vindication for McCarthy, whose last film — Adam Sandler starrer “The Cobbler” — was mauled by critics.
Variety
Kristopher Tapley
Co-Awards Editor
@kristapley
Since launching in 2011 through a partnership between theater chains AMC Theatres and Regal Entertainment Group, distributor Open Road Films has amassed a sui generis blend of often genre-leaning product that stands apart from the competition. Movies like Joe Carnahan’s “The Grey” (longtime readers will recall my affinity for that, the best film of 2012) and Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects” were favorably received by critics, while others like Jon Favreau’s “Chef” were hits as well. But none truly flirted with the awards season until last year’s “Nightcrawler.”
Nevertheless, Dan Gilroy’s broadcast news thriller came up short, too. It picked up surprise notices from the producers and screen actors guilds and was, for obvious reasons, adored by press and critics groups. But only the writers branch of the Academy spoke up for it come Oscar time. It was a scathing film, one that packed a heavy and cynical punch — perhaps too cynical. Maybe voters had trouble embracing that. Maybe they struggled between Jake Gyllenhaal’s uncanny performance and another creepy depiction in the field, Steve Carell’s in “Foxcatcher.” Or maybe the high simply wore off as films like “American Sniper” came along to rally support toward the end.
Whatever the case, it’s interesting to note that the company will be back this season with yet another pulse-quickening tale of journalists on the beat, albeit one that colors the profession in a much more noble light. And that could make all the difference. Indeed, Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” has a real shot at becoming Open Road’s first best picture nominee to date.
After testing through the roof this summer, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival Thursday and is expected to screen in Telluride this weekend before moving on to Toronto. A focused, dialed-down account of shoe-leather reporting at its finest, it’s one of the great newsroom dramas. And it will be sweet vindication for McCarthy, whose last film — Adam Sandler starrer “The Cobbler” — was mauled by critics.
At Venice Film Festival, ‘Spotlight’ premieres to sustained applause
VENICE
Boston Globe
By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF
SEPTEMBER 03, 2015
VENICE – In the shadow of the magnificent churches that crowd this ancient city, “Spotlight,” the movie about The Boston Globe’s award-winning series exposing the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, premiered to sustained applause Thursday.
The drama detailing the newspaper’s dogged pursuit of a story that would rock the Catholic church to its foundation is one of two highly anticipated Hollywood features debuting at the Venice Film Festival in which Boston plays a starring role. “Black Mass,” the saga of South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and his unholy alliance with the FBI, premieres Friday.
Directed by Tom McCarthy and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci, “Spotlight” was well received at Thursday’s press screening, with critics interviewed afterward calling it engrossing without being melodramatic.
A.O. Scott, film critic for The New York Times, said what “Spotlight” lacks in spectacle – it’s about old-fashioned, shoe-leather journalism, after all – it makes up for in artful storytelling.
“It’s a detective story, fundamentally,” said Scott. “It’s very procedural and impressively told.”
In its review, Variety compared “Spotlight” to “All the President’s Men,” calling it “a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account” as well as “a magnificently nerdy process movie — a tour de force of filing-cabinet cinema.”
Boston Globe
By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF
SEPTEMBER 03, 2015
VENICE – In the shadow of the magnificent churches that crowd this ancient city, “Spotlight,” the movie about The Boston Globe’s award-winning series exposing the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, premiered to sustained applause Thursday.
The drama detailing the newspaper’s dogged pursuit of a story that would rock the Catholic church to its foundation is one of two highly anticipated Hollywood features debuting at the Venice Film Festival in which Boston plays a starring role. “Black Mass,” the saga of South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and his unholy alliance with the FBI, premieres Friday.
Directed by Tom McCarthy and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci, “Spotlight” was well received at Thursday’s press screening, with critics interviewed afterward calling it engrossing without being melodramatic.
A.O. Scott, film critic for The New York Times, said what “Spotlight” lacks in spectacle – it’s about old-fashioned, shoe-leather journalism, after all – it makes up for in artful storytelling.
“It’s a detective story, fundamentally,” said Scott. “It’s very procedural and impressively told.”
In its review, Variety compared “Spotlight” to “All the President’s Men,” calling it “a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account” as well as “a magnificently nerdy process movie — a tour de force of filing-cabinet cinema.”
Mark Ruffalo Has Faith in Journalism: ‘It’s An Exciting Time’
UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast
Marlow Stern
The Oscar-nominated actor turned Marvel superhero opened up about his role as an investigative journalist in ‘Spotlight’ and where his activist streak comes from.
Mark Ruffalo, the breezy, floppy-haired two-time Oscar nominee from Kenosha, Wisconsin, is what 4chan trolls would refer to as an “SJW,” or Social Justice Warrior. For the uninitiated, it’s a bit of bullshit acronym ammunition employed by the narrow—and feeble—minded to box in those who yearn for a better world. And Ruffalo is one of those people.
Unlike most tight-lipped actors these days, Ruffalo is very outspoken on Twitter and his personal blog, voicing his support for Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ movement, feminism, anti-fracking, you name it. So it should come as little surprise that the sometime superhero has decided to portray a journalist in the film Spotlight, which made its premiere at the 2015 Venice Film Festival.
Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent), Ruffalo plays Michael Rezendes, a real-life Boston Globe reporter and member of their elite “Spotlight” investigative journalism unit that helped uncover a sex abuse epidemic within the Boston archdiocese, thrusting the issue of child sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests into the national discourse. For their efforts, which resulted in the conviction of five Catholic priests for child sexual abuse, the Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
The Daily Beast
Marlow Stern
The Oscar-nominated actor turned Marvel superhero opened up about his role as an investigative journalist in ‘Spotlight’ and where his activist streak comes from.
Mark Ruffalo, the breezy, floppy-haired two-time Oscar nominee from Kenosha, Wisconsin, is what 4chan trolls would refer to as an “SJW,” or Social Justice Warrior. For the uninitiated, it’s a bit of bullshit acronym ammunition employed by the narrow—and feeble—minded to box in those who yearn for a better world. And Ruffalo is one of those people.
Unlike most tight-lipped actors these days, Ruffalo is very outspoken on Twitter and his personal blog, voicing his support for Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ movement, feminism, anti-fracking, you name it. So it should come as little surprise that the sometime superhero has decided to portray a journalist in the film Spotlight, which made its premiere at the 2015 Venice Film Festival.
Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent), Ruffalo plays Michael Rezendes, a real-life Boston Globe reporter and member of their elite “Spotlight” investigative journalism unit that helped uncover a sex abuse epidemic within the Boston archdiocese, thrusting the issue of child sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests into the national discourse. For their efforts, which resulted in the conviction of five Catholic priests for child sexual abuse, the Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Venice Film Fest: 'Spotlight' Director Calls for Vatican Action Over Child Abuse
VENICE
The Hollywood Reporter
by Ariston Anderson 9/3/2015
"I hope the Vatican will use this movie as a perfect opportunity to begin to right these wrongs," Tom McCarthy said.
Tom McCarthy’s thriller Spotlight has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival Thursday. The true-life story tells follows the investigative Boston Globe team, played by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Brian d’Arcy James and Rachel McAdams, that pulled back the curtains on how the Church covered up Boston’s child molestation scandal. The consequences of the Boston Globe’s work reverberated throughout the Catholic Church around the world.
What starts as a follow-up story into child molestation expands into a year-long investigation, revealing dozens of complicit priests, cardinals, law officials and lawyers who helped cover-up hundreds of cases of abuse within Boston. While some estimates mark 6 percent of priests guilty of molestation, the film points out the dual abuse pattern of its victims, both on a physical and spiritual basis. The case helped open the door for other cities to follow suit, revealing a crime that had infested the Catholic Church on a global scale.
At the press conference in Venice, Italian media questioned the impact the film might have on the Church’s actions today. Pope Francis has recently set up a Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children within their own dioceses.
Actor Stanley Tucci, who plays lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who won millions in settlements for his clients in Boston, was extremely supportive of the Pope. “I think this new Pope is extraordinary and he’s bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century and I think if anybody is to help stop such abuses in the future it would be him.”
The Hollywood Reporter
by Ariston Anderson 9/3/2015
"I hope the Vatican will use this movie as a perfect opportunity to begin to right these wrongs," Tom McCarthy said.
Tom McCarthy’s thriller Spotlight has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival Thursday. The true-life story tells follows the investigative Boston Globe team, played by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Brian d’Arcy James and Rachel McAdams, that pulled back the curtains on how the Church covered up Boston’s child molestation scandal. The consequences of the Boston Globe’s work reverberated throughout the Catholic Church around the world.
What starts as a follow-up story into child molestation expands into a year-long investigation, revealing dozens of complicit priests, cardinals, law officials and lawyers who helped cover-up hundreds of cases of abuse within Boston. While some estimates mark 6 percent of priests guilty of molestation, the film points out the dual abuse pattern of its victims, both on a physical and spiritual basis. The case helped open the door for other cities to follow suit, revealing a crime that had infested the Catholic Church on a global scale.
At the press conference in Venice, Italian media questioned the impact the film might have on the Church’s actions today. Pope Francis has recently set up a Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children within their own dioceses.
Actor Stanley Tucci, who plays lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who won millions in settlements for his clients in Boston, was extremely supportive of the Pope. “I think this new Pope is extraordinary and he’s bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century and I think if anybody is to help stop such abuses in the future it would be him.”
Venice film puts spotlight on Boston's pedophile priests
VENICE
Reuters
VENICE | BY HANNA RANTALA
"Spotlight" starring Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo as reporters working on the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of paedophile Roman Catholic priests deals with just a fraction of sexual predation in the Church, its director says.
Reports of sexual misconduct by the late British entertainer Jimmy Savile and other high profile cases are an indication of the global scope of the problem, and of failures to deal with it, Tom McCarthy said before his film's screening on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
"These moments where we know people have done things wrong and we don’t, as a society, we don’t stand up to them, it takes years and years and years and the question is why? Why does it take so long?," McCarthy said in an interview on Wednesday.
The Globe's Spotlight team exposed the attacks over a period of decades by priests in the Boston archdiocese who molested young boys but instead of being reported to the police were given counseling and moved to a different parish. The expose led to the resignation of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002.
Reuters
VENICE | BY HANNA RANTALA
"Spotlight" starring Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo as reporters working on the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of paedophile Roman Catholic priests deals with just a fraction of sexual predation in the Church, its director says.
Reports of sexual misconduct by the late British entertainer Jimmy Savile and other high profile cases are an indication of the global scope of the problem, and of failures to deal with it, Tom McCarthy said before his film's screening on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
"These moments where we know people have done things wrong and we don’t, as a society, we don’t stand up to them, it takes years and years and years and the question is why? Why does it take so long?," McCarthy said in an interview on Wednesday.
The Globe's Spotlight team exposed the attacks over a period of decades by priests in the Boston archdiocese who molested young boys but instead of being reported to the police were given counseling and moved to a different parish. The expose led to the resignation of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002.
Spotlight review – Catholic church child abuse film decently tells an awful story
MASSACHUSETTS
The Guardian (UK)
[with video]
Peter Bradshaw
@PeterBradshaw1
Thursday 3 September 2015
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one,” is how one character here summarises the issues. This high-minded, well-intentioned movie, co-written and directed by Tom McCarthy, is about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting team Spotlight, and its Pulitzer-winning campaign in 2001 to uncover widespread, systemic child abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts.
The film shows that in the close-knit, clubbably loyal and very Catholic city of Boston, no one had any great interest in breaking the queasy, shame-ridden silence that made the church’s culture of abuse possible, and even tentatively suggests that the Globe itself was one of the Boston institutions affected. The paper had evidence of abuse 10 years before the campaign began, but somehow contrived to downplay and bury the story, and it took a new editor, both non-Boston and Jewish, to get things started.
Spotlight has a few inevitable journo cliches: male reporters are dishevelled mavericks who don’t need to keep the same hours as everyone else, doing a fair bit of shouting and desk-thumping. There is much cheeky machismo on the subjects of poker and sports, and they somehow never need to do the boring grind of sitting down and writing stuff on computers. But this is a movie that is honourably concerned to avoid sensationalism and to avoid the bad taste involved in implying that journalists, and not the child abuse survivors, are the really important people here. So there is something cautious, even occasionally plodding, in its dramatic pace.
We keep hearing about how the church is going to come after reporters who dare to challenge its authority – but this never really happens, and there is none of the paranoia of a picture like Alan J Pakula’s All the President’s Men (1976) or Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999). Yet McCarthy keeps the narrative motor running, and there are some very good scenes, chiefly the extraordinary moment when Rachel McAdams’s reporter doorsteps a smilingly hospitable retired priest and asks him, flat-out, if he has ever molested a child. The resulting scene had me on the edge of my seat.
The Guardian (UK)
[with video]
Peter Bradshaw
@PeterBradshaw1
Thursday 3 September 2015
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one,” is how one character here summarises the issues. This high-minded, well-intentioned movie, co-written and directed by Tom McCarthy, is about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting team Spotlight, and its Pulitzer-winning campaign in 2001 to uncover widespread, systemic child abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts.
The film shows that in the close-knit, clubbably loyal and very Catholic city of Boston, no one had any great interest in breaking the queasy, shame-ridden silence that made the church’s culture of abuse possible, and even tentatively suggests that the Globe itself was one of the Boston institutions affected. The paper had evidence of abuse 10 years before the campaign began, but somehow contrived to downplay and bury the story, and it took a new editor, both non-Boston and Jewish, to get things started.
Spotlight has a few inevitable journo cliches: male reporters are dishevelled mavericks who don’t need to keep the same hours as everyone else, doing a fair bit of shouting and desk-thumping. There is much cheeky machismo on the subjects of poker and sports, and they somehow never need to do the boring grind of sitting down and writing stuff on computers. But this is a movie that is honourably concerned to avoid sensationalism and to avoid the bad taste involved in implying that journalists, and not the child abuse survivors, are the really important people here. So there is something cautious, even occasionally plodding, in its dramatic pace.
We keep hearing about how the church is going to come after reporters who dare to challenge its authority – but this never really happens, and there is none of the paranoia of a picture like Alan J Pakula’s All the President’s Men (1976) or Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999). Yet McCarthy keeps the narrative motor running, and there are some very good scenes, chiefly the extraordinary moment when Rachel McAdams’s reporter doorsteps a smilingly hospitable retired priest and asks him, flat-out, if he has ever molested a child. The resulting scene had me on the edge of my seat.
Tom McCarthy Speaks About Opening ‘Spotlight’ In Catholic Italy...
VENICE
Variety
Tom McCarthy Speaks About Opening ‘Spotlight’ In Catholic Italy, How He Cast Michael Keaton, And How Journalism Is Deteriorating
Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
@NickVivarelli
Tom McCarthy’s new film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation in 2002 into the priest pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church, is making a splash at the Venice Film Festival where it world premieres this evening after playing positively for the press this morning. Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James star in the ensemble drama as the Globe’s Spotlight Team. They are assigned by a new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), with investigating allegations of pedophilia. Spotlight editor is Walter “Robby” Robinson, played by Michael Keaton, in his first role after “Birdman.”
You were raised Irish Catholic and you went to Boston College, so you were educated by Jesuits. How did your background play into the film?
It certainly prompted my interest. When I was approached by Blye Faust and Nicole Rocklin approached with this story and the life rights to the reporters, the first person I sat down with was my father to say: ‘I’m doing this.’ He’s a very strong Catholic. And I told him: ‘As soon as they announce it in the papers, you and mom are going to hear about it.’ And sure enough calls started coming from all their friends saying, ‘Why is he doing this?’ ‘Can’t we move on?’ But they heard me out why I wanted to do it, and they agreed.
Did you meet a lot of the Boston Globe guys?
From day-one Josh Singer (who co-wrote the screenplay) and I went down to Boston, sat down with each of them. We started expanding and sat down with the lawyers, survivors, family members, former reporters, lawyers, editors, publishers. Anyone who would talk to us. It was just trying to get as many angles to the story as we could and really trying to understand the context of not just life at the Globe at the time, but of life in Boston.
Now the reporters text me all the time. They are completely annoying. They are relentless reporters. It’s a funny relationship because they are sometimes the trickiest people to interview. Reporters weirdly don’t like that.
Ultimately they are the heroes of our story, and I think we all owe them a debt of gratitude for the work they did. That said, they become our subjects too, so there is always that line that at one point we are going to have to tell the story, and maybe it won’t all be favorable to some degree.
Variety
Tom McCarthy Speaks About Opening ‘Spotlight’ In Catholic Italy, How He Cast Michael Keaton, And How Journalism Is Deteriorating
Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
@NickVivarelli
Tom McCarthy’s new film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation in 2002 into the priest pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church, is making a splash at the Venice Film Festival where it world premieres this evening after playing positively for the press this morning. Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James star in the ensemble drama as the Globe’s Spotlight Team. They are assigned by a new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), with investigating allegations of pedophilia. Spotlight editor is Walter “Robby” Robinson, played by Michael Keaton, in his first role after “Birdman.”
You were raised Irish Catholic and you went to Boston College, so you were educated by Jesuits. How did your background play into the film?
It certainly prompted my interest. When I was approached by Blye Faust and Nicole Rocklin approached with this story and the life rights to the reporters, the first person I sat down with was my father to say: ‘I’m doing this.’ He’s a very strong Catholic. And I told him: ‘As soon as they announce it in the papers, you and mom are going to hear about it.’ And sure enough calls started coming from all their friends saying, ‘Why is he doing this?’ ‘Can’t we move on?’ But they heard me out why I wanted to do it, and they agreed.
Did you meet a lot of the Boston Globe guys?
From day-one Josh Singer (who co-wrote the screenplay) and I went down to Boston, sat down with each of them. We started expanding and sat down with the lawyers, survivors, family members, former reporters, lawyers, editors, publishers. Anyone who would talk to us. It was just trying to get as many angles to the story as we could and really trying to understand the context of not just life at the Globe at the time, but of life in Boston.
Now the reporters text me all the time. They are completely annoying. They are relentless reporters. It’s a funny relationship because they are sometimes the trickiest people to interview. Reporters weirdly don’t like that.
Ultimately they are the heroes of our story, and I think we all owe them a debt of gratitude for the work they did. That said, they become our subjects too, so there is always that line that at one point we are going to have to tell the story, and maybe it won’t all be favorable to some degree.
At Venice fest, 'Spotlight' exposes sex abuse by priests
VENICE
San Francisco Chronicle
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Thomas McCarthy wants Pope Francis to go to the movies.
Specifically, the American director would like the pontiff to see his new film "Spotlight," a fact-based expose of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Boston.
The movie stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as real-life Boston Globe reporters, and premieres Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
McCarthy says he's excited and apprehensive about holding the film's first public screening in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy. But he doesn't expect to be getting rave reviews from the church.
San Francisco Chronicle
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Thomas McCarthy wants Pope Francis to go to the movies.
Specifically, the American director would like the pontiff to see his new film "Spotlight," a fact-based expose of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Boston.
The movie stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as real-life Boston Globe reporters, and premieres Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
McCarthy says he's excited and apprehensive about holding the film's first public screening in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy. But he doesn't expect to be getting rave reviews from the church.
Venezia, applausi per 'Spotlight'. Il Watergate sui preti pedofili
ITALIA
Quotidiano
[con il video]
Venezia, 3 settembre 2015 - Entra nel vivo la 72esima mostra del cinema di Venezia, anche se uno dei film più attesi è fuori concorso. Si tratta di 'Spotlight', film che commuove e convince, a giudicare dagli applausi a scena aperta alle proiezioni dedicate alla stampa.
Spotlight mette sotto i riflettori l'inchiesta del Boston Globe che portò alla luce lo scandalo della pedofilia tra i preti della città e la copertura della Chiesa: uscirono 600 articoli per raccontare oltre 1000 violenze ai bambini. E a farlo fu un pool - Spotlight appunto - di giornalisti come si deve. Il film, regia di Tom McCarthy, vanta un cast di tutto rispetto in cui spiccano Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo e Stanley Tucci. Di certo farà discutere anche in Italia: al centro c'è la figura dell'arcivescovo Bernard Law, che mise tutto a tacere e che, come ricorda l'ultima scena del film, è arciprete emerito della Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma.
Quotidiano
[con il video]
Venezia, 3 settembre 2015 - Entra nel vivo la 72esima mostra del cinema di Venezia, anche se uno dei film più attesi è fuori concorso. Si tratta di 'Spotlight', film che commuove e convince, a giudicare dagli applausi a scena aperta alle proiezioni dedicate alla stampa.
Spotlight mette sotto i riflettori l'inchiesta del Boston Globe che portò alla luce lo scandalo della pedofilia tra i preti della città e la copertura della Chiesa: uscirono 600 articoli per raccontare oltre 1000 violenze ai bambini. E a farlo fu un pool - Spotlight appunto - di giornalisti come si deve. Il film, regia di Tom McCarthy, vanta un cast di tutto rispetto in cui spiccano Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo e Stanley Tucci. Di certo farà discutere anche in Italia: al centro c'è la figura dell'arcivescovo Bernard Law, che mise tutto a tacere e che, come ricorda l'ultima scena del film, è arciprete emerito della Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma.
New film casts spotlight on Church abuse
ITALY
The Local
Pope Francis still has to prove the Church is serious about addressing sex abuse by priests, according to the director of a major new film about how the damaging scandal was exposed in the United States.
Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight", a newsroom drama that focuses on how the Boston Globe broke a local story that was to become a global crisis for the Church, had its premiere on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as key members of the Globe's investigations team, the film recounts the paper's pursuit of evidence of how the local Catholic hierarchy, headed by Cardinal Bernard Law, systematically and, at times, cynically, covered up for abusive priests in their midst.
By the time the Globe's team had earned their Pulitzer Prize it had become clear that the Church in the Boston area had, for years, harboured more than 70 predatory paedophiles, shuffling them from parish to parish when the rumours got too loud and acting swiftly to ensure any legal suits were settled silently and secretly.
The Local
Pope Francis still has to prove the Church is serious about addressing sex abuse by priests, according to the director of a major new film about how the damaging scandal was exposed in the United States.
Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight", a newsroom drama that focuses on how the Boston Globe broke a local story that was to become a global crisis for the Church, had its premiere on Thursday at the Venice Film Festival.
Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams as key members of the Globe's investigations team, the film recounts the paper's pursuit of evidence of how the local Catholic hierarchy, headed by Cardinal Bernard Law, systematically and, at times, cynically, covered up for abusive priests in their midst.
By the time the Globe's team had earned their Pulitzer Prize it had become clear that the Church in the Boston area had, for years, harboured more than 70 predatory paedophiles, shuffling them from parish to parish when the rumours got too loud and acting swiftly to ensure any legal suits were settled silently and secretly.
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