The movie tells the riveting true story of The Boston Globe's 'Spotlight' team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States and how they uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese.
By simply presenting a true story in its most raw form, it ends up being an entirely believable portrayal of one of the most important cases of the past 20 years.
The subtle, egoless performances by the cast frees the audience up to invest in the facts of the story, which McCarthy insists take precedent over the characters.
The other great thing about Spotlight is that it never shouts out its message. McCarthy employs the secret every good reporter knows: Let the facts speak for themselves, and they will make your story worth the audience's time.
This is why Spotlight's moral of humility is so powerful. There are so many things that we don't know, so many assumptions that we don't recognize as such, so many questions that we haven't even thought to ask.
If there was a Best Ensemble acting category, the cast of Spotlight would be a frontrunner. The film has no lead actor but there are five or six strong supporting performances.
Ruffalo gets top billing in the movie, and he brings some wonderfully lived-in behavioral details to his performance -- the quick, terrier-like movements of the head and the bitten-off sentences.
