• About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Monday, January 30, 2023
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
No Result
View All Result

Spotlight Recalls All the Presidents Men and Zodiac says Variety

by Sasha Stone
June 19, 2016
in BEST PICTURE, News, TELLURIDE, Venice Film Festival
2648
Spotlight Recalls All the Presidents Men and Zodiac says Variety

Though All the Presidents Men and Zodiac are two of the greatest American films without a doubt, they really only have the newsroom in common. What they are about and how they tell their stories are vastly different. Zodiac, you could say, is All the President’s Men jacked up to 11. And even then that doesn’t cover it. Where they are similar is that they are both about men who were secretive. They are both about a trail of clues. They both take place amid typewriters and news briefs, reporters, ledes and headlines. It stops there because Zodiac is a horror film both because it’s about a violent, vicious sociopathic killer and because it is ultimately about the horror of unending deep diving obsession. All the President’s Men is much less complicated. It is about a story and two reporters who relentlessly uncover that story thus bringing down a president. There is a clear line between good and evil. There isn’t a whole lot of soul-searching to be done because there is only the right side and the story of deception. Think of them like World War II vs. Vietnam. Whenever a film comes out about a newsroom comparisons are made to both films — probably it’s inevitable. Spotlight is the latest such movie.  The thing about these comparisons, though, is they are nearly impossible to surmount; how can any film stand up to being measured against All the President’s Men and Zodiac? Last year’s Nightcrawler suffered the same fate — critics drag out those tired old cliches like they are in a pitch meeting: it’s Network meets Taxi Driver. Okay but how in the hell is any movie ever going to compare to those films? Either way, Spotlight is dividing critics in early reviews — with Variety giving it a thumbs up and calling it McCarthy’s best film, and Peter Bradshaw and Todd McCarthy a little more iffy.

A rave by Variety’s Justin Chang touches on that and notes the obvious differences:

Even without the onscreen presence of Globe deputy managing editor Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery), whose father famously steered the Washington Post through Watergate, “All the President’s Men” would be the obvious touchstone here. Like so many films consumed with the minutiae of daily journalism, “Spotlight” is a magnificently nerdy process movie — a tour de force of filing-cabinet cinema, made with absolute assurance that we’ll be held by scene after scene of people talking, taking notes, following tips, hounding sources, poring over records, filling out spreadsheets, and having one door after another slammed in their faces. When the Spotlight investigation is temporarily halted in the wake of 9/11, we’re reminded that the film is also a period piece, set during a time when print journalism had not yet entered its death throes. Like the American remake of “State of Play” (in which McAdams also played a journalist), McCarthy’s film includes a loving montage of a printing press, busily churning out the next morning’s edition — a valedictory sequence that may move old-school journalists in the audience to tears.

The story’s newsgathering focus ultimately creates a level of distance from its subject that works both for the film and against it. As information-system dramas go, “Spotlight” doesn’t have the haunting thematic layers of “Zodiac,” and it never summons the emotional force of the 1991 miniseries “The Boys of St. Vincent,” still the most devastating docudrama ever made about child abuse within the Catholic Church. Many of the victims depicted here — like Phil Saviano (Neal Huff), head of a local survivors’ group, and Joe Crowley (Michael Cyril Creighton), who movingly recalls his treatment at the hands of a priest named Paul Shanley — function in a mostly expository manner, offering up vital but fleeting insights into the psychology of the abusers and the abused, but without taking pride of place in their own story.

Here is where you see the film depart from those that came before it:

Where the film proves extraordinarily perceptive is in its sense of how inextricably the Church has woven itself into the very fabric of Boston life, and how it concealed its corruption for so long by exerting pressure and influence on the city’s legal, political and journalistic institutions. Given the blurrier-than-usual separation of church and state, and the fact that the newspaper’s own readership includes a high percentage of Irish Catholics, it’s no surprise that it falls to an outsider like Baron — a Florida native and the first Jewish editor to take the helm at the Globe — to play hardball with the Archdiocese. If there’s anything that keeps “Spotlight” from devolving into a simplistic heroic-crusaders movie, it’s the filmmakers’ refusal to let the Globe itself off the hook, pointing out the numerous times the paper’s leaders glossed over reports of abuse that landed on their doorstep.

That’s clearly the real story of Spotlight that illuminates the much bigger problem — still an ongoing problem — the story of how this travesty has been covered up and forgotten.

Spotlight plays in Telluride over the weekend. Can’t wait.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
Tags: Spotlight
Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone has been around the Oscar scene since 1999. Almost everything on this website is her fault.

Related Posts

Oscars 2023: Best Actress, Campaigning and the Question of Fairness

Oscars 2023: Best Actress, Campaigning and the Question of Fairness

by Sasha Stone
January 29, 2023
235

The BAFTAs have designed their acting awards in such a way as to avoid what just happened with the Oscars....

2023 sundance

7 Sundance Films to Watch Out for in 2023

by Megan McLachlan
January 28, 2023
8

Awards Daily's Megan McLachlan takes a look at seven Sundance films to look out for in 2023. I've been kind...

2023 Oscar Predictions – A Wide Open Race or Locked Down?

2023 Oscar Predictions – A Wide Open Race or Locked Down?

by Sasha Stone
January 27, 2023
289

Best Picture is usually driven by one primary force. It's either the performance of an actor that is so good...

scad tvfest

SCAD TVFest Returns in Person in Atlanta for 2023

by Megan McLachlan
January 27, 2023
0

ATLANTA, GA. — Jan. 27, 2023 — The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) today announced that the 2023 SCAD...

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2023

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2023

by Megan McLachlan
January 26, 2023
1

Creo is delighted to announce the shortlist for the first edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards. Established by Creo...

Oscar Predictions 2023: Best Actor and Picture Connection

2023 Oscar Nominee: Wayne Pashley on Recreating Iconic ‘Elvis’ Sounds, Performances

by Ben Morris
January 26, 2023
0

Wayne Pashley is the newly Oscar-nominated re-recording mixer, sound designer, and supervising sound editor for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. This is...

Next Post
2012 Telluride Lineup Announced

No Surprises in Telluride Lineup, Tapley Reports

‘Poker Face:’ What’s Our Take? What’s Our Take? What’s Our Take on ‘Poker Face?’

‘Poker Face:’ What’s Our Take? What’s Our Take? What’s Our Take on ‘Poker Face?’

January 30, 2023
Oscars 2023: Best Actor Remains a Cliffhanger (POLL!)

Oscars 2023: Best Actor Remains a Cliffhanger (POLL!)

January 30, 2023
How Director Jason Moore Made ‘Shotgun Wedding’ a True Destination

How Director Jason Moore Made ‘Shotgun Wedding’ a True Destination

January 30, 2023
Oscars 2023: Best Actor Remains a Cliffhanger (POLL!)

Oscars 2023: Best Actor Remains a Cliffhanger (POLL!)

by Sasha Stone
January 30, 2023
10

17 times since 2000, one of the Best Actor winners at the Golden Globes went on to win the Oscar....

Oscars 2023: Is the Oscar Movie Really Dying?

Oscars 2023: Writers Guild Announces Nominations

by Sasha Stone
January 25, 2023
85

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York and Los Angeles (January 25, 2023) – Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writers...

Oscars 2023: Academy Members as Social Media Influencers

Oscars 2023: Academy Members as Social Media Influencers

by Sasha Stone
January 25, 2023
305

A brand new career has opened up for Academy members. It's the same path open to just about about every...

All This and the Oscars Too – Big Awards Drop

Oscar Podcast – Reacting to the Nominees

by Sasha Stone
January 24, 2023
49

A quick chat between me, Ryan and Clarence (we missed Mark this time) on the Oscar nominees. Low key rundown...

Oscars 2023: Frontrunners and Their Challengers, Post Nominations

Oscars 2023: Frontrunners and Their Challengers, Post Nominations

by Sasha Stone
January 24, 2023
559

The Oscar nominations dropped this morning. The Academy's nominations were live for the first time in a while, which was...

2023 Oscar Predictions: Breaking Down the Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

2023 Oscar Predictions: Breaking Down the Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

by Joey Moser
January 26, 2023
1

For most of the year, the short film categories are a mystery. The next time you attend a film festival,...

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Editor Clarence Moye
  • Editor Mark Johnson
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Editor
  • Joey Moser, Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Oscar Podcast
  • AwardsDailyTV

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In