Category: Uncategorized

Spotlight is one of the nominees for best picture of the year. I am not sure why though. It is at best a good example of investigative journalism like The Insider, but it lacks any dramatic elements to make it seem important. Yes, given the subject matter it is an important story to tell, but it doesn’t carry the weight of a best picture nominee. It looks as if the Academy was needing to put substantive films into that category and just grabbed for whatever is out there.

Spotlight is the story of the investigative news team of the Boston Globe that published the infamous Catholic Church sexual predator priest coverup. This is important in the sense that they made the Church acknowledge its problems; but they couldn’t make the Church pay for its actions. The Church is still run by dudes who would wish away evil than confront it, and is still supported by millions of followers that want to believe that the goodness the Church does outweighs the fact that it still harbors and abets sexual predators.

The major problem with the movie I had is that their is no drama. There may be characters that search deep in their soul for a way to rectify the good Church and the bad priests, but that all seemed to be rote — needed to establish that good Christians struggle with faith, too. There definitely wasn’t any drama in terms of where the story was heading as this is all old news. There could’ve been drama in the way the reporters, all relapsed Catholics, approached their loss in faith, but they didn’t really touch too much on that.

The actors were fine. I’m glad to see Racheal McAdams in movies again. Ruffalo was excellent, but his character was the least interesting — a relapsed Catholic abhors the Church because of its penchant for hiding its sins?

The best that this can be is a nice TCM diversion during its annual 31 days of Oscars. That’s where I would catch it.

3 of 5 stars.

Carol continues director Todd Haynes’s turn as a latter day Douglas Sirk. In Carol, he explores the suppressed sexual desires between a young counter clerk and an older woman. In this though, the clerk is a young woman. It is a movie based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, The Price of Salt, which was a formative novel for the gay and lesbian community.

In this film as in the book, the love that blossoms between the women is meant to be normal. It attempts to have a happy ending, but it was still ambiguous. It attempts to make the young lady realize her growing desire. It attempts to make the older woman less of a vamp and more of a tortured soul. They are or may be right together.

As with Sirk, Haynes deals with the sublimated ugliness within American culture of the 50s. The way the husband whispered in quiet tones about his wife’s dalliances. The way the boyfriends desperately pleaded with the young one for some semblance of hetero love. The discreet glances, the touches, all had to be held back in a more repressive society.

There is a scene of lovemaking in this movie. It was tasteful to say the least. Somewhat titillating showing the love made physical. It was there to remind us that there was still sex at that time.

I really wanted to like this film, but it was too smooth for me. I can see how it has won accolades with the acting by both Kate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Both actresses were very good effectively portraying the strain in their psyche as they fought society, their desires, and their commitments. It may have been a good movie but not for me.

3 of 5 stars.