Spotlight

Tom McCarthy, 2015

IMDB

4/5

There are some films that have a sole purpose. A sole purpose to highlight a particular moment in time, a notable event of sequence of events. Spotlight is one of these films, fulfilling a duty to highlight the Catholic sex abuse scandal of the (year) that was uncovered by the Boston Globe. When new editor Marty Baron is hired from Miami, he immediately starts to put pressure on the staff to maintain core readership. He urges the Spotlight investigative team to focus on some accusations of local priests abusing boys. When they start to realize that there is some validity to the accusations, he urges them to follow it higher and higher - not really concerned about which powerful figures he angers along the way. The fact that this is going on in the city of Boston adds even more weight to the scandal, as half of the city is Irish Catholic and holds their Priest's in very high regard. 

The Spotlight team itself is a showcase of solid acting by Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, John Slattery and Brian D'Arcy James. There is such balanced chemistry between them all, it's just alluring to watch them all just work their craft. Perfect casting decisions in that regard. Stanley Tucci is also remarkable as attorney Mitchell Garabedian. They are all laser focused on the task. Some of them working longer hours than others. Some of them having families to go home to, some of them choosing career over family. But they are all thorough. 

They manage to maintain their journalistic professionalism while also taking the abuse claims to heart. When Matt Carroll's (D'Arcy James) character is scouring through the pages of the Catholic directory and discovers that one of the "treatment centers" is around the corner from his house, he realizes how close to home this problem really is. It is not wrong to draw comparisons of Spotlight to All the President's Men. They are both serious films, impactful in nature, covering scandals that everyone was already knowledgeable of. Both films feel academic to a certain extent. They both remind us of the importance of whistle-blowers in American culture. But sometimes its a film's duty to simply highlight a negative event in history. This way it will have it's place in cinematic history. And as the Spotlight staff realizes, some things should not go unnoticed. No matter how big the cages are that are about to get rattled. Spotlight isn't a movie filled with stylistic flair. It's a movie, completely serious in tone, with a job to do. And just like the Spotlight team, it maintains that steady pace until the job is done. 

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014

GoWatchIt

3/5

Riggan Thomas is attempting to mount a career comeback with a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story, years after entertaining movie audiences as superhero "Birdman".

Birdman is erratic, intense, manic. You spend 120 minutes in the presence of the true theater culture, with all of the moving parts. All of the dramatic impulses, the insecurity, etc. Riggan is the centerpiece of the story but one of many egos shuffling through the narrow halls of the St. James Theatre. Birdman could be called a character unraveling picture because Riggan is basically falling apart for the duration of the film. But his inner conflicts (you could call an overconfident voice in your head part of an inner conflict) and professional conflicts are completely compelling. There are constant elements of ego, self-doubt, regret. Digging your heels into a project that everyone around you seems to not have a whole lot of faith in. As time pushes on you only get deeper and deeper. The stage show is hanging on by a thread during the preview period, but then again all of the people orbiting Riggan are hanging on by a thread for the most part. It's a bold role for Keaton. Birdman is clearly a satirical look at his Batman days, where we didn't see much of him after he put away the Bat-suit despite the fact that the general public remained seemingly receptive. Nice to see him have a sense of humor about some of it. There's quite a bit of humor in the film, basically placing Birdman in a black comedy / dramedy category. It's actually a difficult movie to fully process in short time. There's a sense of satisfaction at the end credits, but it may need to marinate in your brain for a little while. Maybe because it's so flowing and bustling that there's a need for the mind to catch up afterward.

Beetlejuice

Tim Burton, 1988


(REWATCHED)

4/5

Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) realize that they are deceased. Bound to their country home they loved dearly, they want to do anything they can to stop the new residents from getting too comfortable. They seek the help of "Beetlejuice", a "bio-exorcist" who assists them in scaring the new homeowners away.

A classic for children of the 1980's, any probably scary to young ones of today. One of Tim Burton's best, probably second best (with Edward Scissorhands in the lead). He uses the innocent Vermont backdrop to showcase quirky caricatures and his own bizarre creations. You venture into the white farmhouse only to discover the model home Adam has been working on so detailed, and comes alive as soon as they are dead. There are so many moments in this film that have a lasting impact. Walking out of the house and landing in the sand-worm's dimension. The waiting room of the case worker's office. The possession scene at the dinner table. And most of Beetlejuice's antics. Keaton is so buried in his role. One must wonder who or what he used to channel this performance. He probably should have been nominated for an Oscar, but it was a very competitive year with Dustin Hoffman winning Best Actor for his role in Rain Man. The film still took home an Oscar for Best Makeup, and for good reason.

Tim Burton's older films are so much better than his newer films. Why? Age? Did he lose that edge as he got older? Probably a lot of reasons. But he certainly took more risks in the 1980's. This film was so out there for it's time, it could have completely flopped. But it didn't. It was made on a rather modest $15M budget and ultimately grossed $73M. At times it has an almost Cronenbergy feel to it. But also very much unlike Cronenberg's films in the sense that the characters never really take themselves seriously. Adam and Barbara are very quickly accepting of their own death, and jump into a more defensive mode in trying to maintain ownership of the house. The most serious person in the film is likely Lydia (Winona Ryder), but her lack of fear of communicating with her deceased housemates certainly diminishes any kind of serious tone and only adds to the comedy.