Spotlight

Spotlight is a story about the way things used to be done; a model of journalism in which a reporter might publish one article a year rather than one article a day (or, God help us, an hour). It follows the “Spotlight” unit of The Boston Globe, a four-person team of reporters who investigate big stories for as long as they need. In 2001, Martin Baron (Liev Schreiber) became the new editor of the Globe, and assigned the Spotlight writers the case of a Catholic priest accused of molesting numerous children. But rather than simply cover that one story, the Spotlight staff dug deeper into the Catholic Church’s history of hiding such crimes by moving priests from one place to another. Their work exposed systemic abuse stretching back decades and ultimately won a Pulitzer Prize… but wasn’t published until 2002.

One thing is for certain about director Tom McCarthy — he’s been very diverse, which makes him a bit unpredictable. His most recent film was the laughably, inconceivably awful The Cobbler, starring Adam Sandler. But prior to that he made acclaimed films like The Station Agent and Win Win. With that little Adam Sandler hiccup behind us now, we’re free to look forward to Spotlight, a new drama featuring an excellent ensemble cast and some very serious subject matter. Best of all: no magic shoes.