DECADES GRAB BAG: Spotlight (2015)

“We’re going after the system.”

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. While no explicit mentions are made of actions or abuse, listener discretion is advised.

This one has been on our must watch list since it came out, and somehow it lingered for 10 years. In fact, you might suspect we did this series just to watch this movie, and you'd be at least a little bit right. Fortunately, the film doesn't disappoint, taking the well-worn movie journalism formula and taking it in a completely different direction. This movie is all about subtlety, accuracy, and most of all, real human storytelling. There's very few frills involved and very few liberties taken, which is the perfect way to tell the story of uncovering one of the most heinous abuses of power and trust in human history. There's no hero worship and no easy answers here, just plain great storytelling. No wonder it won Best Picture. We're finish on a high note with 2015's Spotlight on Have a Good Movie!

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Intro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.

Excerpt taken from "Spotlight" from the soundtrack to Spotlight, written and composed by Howard Shore. Copyright 2015 Howard Shore; Entertainment Rights Holdings, EOT Film Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts taken from the main theme to the film The Magnificent Seven, written and composed by Elmer Bernstein. Copyright 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.