Spotlight
More of a detective drama than a sole examination of the deeply entrenched evil that the Catholic Church posses in regards to paedophilia, Spotlight is still difficult to watch. See more in Stuart Jamieson’s review here.

The Big Short
In retelling a moment in time that had a dramatic effect on the entire world, The Big Short succeeds in taking a somewhat complicated story and reducing it to its primary human trait, greed. It also uses hilarious cameos by a surprising group of celebs to help reduce financial shenanigans to more understandably human terms.

Room
Featuring two of the year’s most arresting performances by Brie Larson (United States of Tara, Remember the Daze) and ten-year-old Jacob Tremblay, Room tells the amazing story of how much strength there is in human nature and how the power of the love a mother feels towards her child can overcome almost any adversity. The film also has a wonderful duality in the harshness of the situation and the wonderful flights of imagination shown by the young son played by Tremblay. It’s a shame that the academy is also quite ageist.

Carol
Another acting tour-de-force, this tale of forbidden love between two women show the amazing amount of craft that Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara possess as they say so much with just the simplest gesture and longing glance. The film creates a level of intimacy between audience and film that is mesmerizing.

Steve Job
Michael Fassbender does the almost impossible by making a man so ruthless as to disown almost every person in his life that cares about him seem absolutely real and human, almost likeable. As towering as Fassbender’s performance is, it’s matched scene by scene by the transcendent skill of Kate Winslet as his long-suffering co-worker Joanna Hoffman. This film will also make you think quite differently about all those tiny white boxes we love so much. See more in Rob Hudson’s review here.

Rob Hudosn
www.oscar.go.com

As they delve further into the case they find there’s much more to the story than the mere ravings of a couple of local cranks and a rogue lawyer stirring up trouble and uncover long running systemic corruption and cover up within the church. It’s an investigation that would have implications right across the globe.

Right from the outset, Spotlight looks like a great film. It’s economic script has a frugality which, in the beginning at least, makes it difficult to get a bead on precisely what is going on and who is doing what to whom but, rest easy, all the pieces of the puzzle will be laid on the table in the end.

The film is unsurprisingly and necessarily dialogue driven but it’s never tedious, being a gripping experience from beginning to end. In this age of the immediacy of the 24hr news cycle and diminishing news media revenue, the film highlights the importance of investing in investigative journalism and the important role this plays in our society.

But more than that, the film bravely asserts that outing wrongs in society is a responsibility of us all and that when it comes to child abuse in the church, we all failed; failed to read the signs and, in some small way at least, failed to act upon them.

Ultimately, Spotlight is a refreshing movie that accepts that it’s audience possesses the requisite intelligence to keep up and serves as a prescient reminder to keep our eyes open to the wrongs that occur in the shadows around us.

Stuart Jamieson
www.spotlightthefilm.com