Spotlight

"Break the story. Break the silence."

2015 2h 9m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 9,018

DramaHistory

Synopsis

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The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.

“Break the story. Break the silence.”

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Cast

Mark Ruffalo
Michael Rezendes
Michael Keaton
Walter 'Robby' Robinson
Rachel McAdams
Sacha Pfeiffer
Liev Schreiber
Marty Baron
John Slattery
Ben Bradlee, Jr.
Brian d'Arcy James
Matt Carroll
Stanley Tucci
Mitchell Garabedian
Elena Wohl
Barbara

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Tom McCarthy
Writers: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Tom McCarthy, shot by Masanobu Takayanagi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tom McArdle shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Break the story. Break the silence.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1895587 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tom McCarthy directs. Masanobu Takayanagi behind the camera. Howard Shore scores. Tom McArdle cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.9× over at the box office.
2Released 11 years ago.
3Directed by Tom McCarthy, shot by Masanobu Takayanagi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Tom McArdle shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Break the story. Break the silence.".
8IMDB entry: tt1895587 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 31 themes, including "pedophilia", "florida", "newspaper", "journalist".

The technical file

Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi
Original score: Howard Shore
Editing: Tom McArdle
Production design: Stephen H. Carter
Costume design: Wendy Chuck
Makeup / hair: Mario Cacioppo
VFX supervisor: Colin Davies
Sound: Paul Hsu
Stunt coordinator: Bobby Beckles
Runtime: 129 min · 2h 9m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $98,690,254
Return: 493% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Spotlight (2015)

Awards

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Tom McCarthy

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2016-02-24
★ 8/10
Uncovering the sins committed by whom the millions of people believe in. A documentary film would show the real faces of those offenders to shame them. That's the reason I desperately wanted it to be a documentary, then I would have definitely given a maximum mark. There's no complaint about this movie, but adaptation means fakes acting, fake settings and awards goes to non real achievers. Anyway, this movie kind looked a semi documentary and liked the way it was made. The movie exposed a very important scandal. If something is open for a debate in the US means, the rest of the world would follow the same route. That's where this theme was inspired by. It all begins with a group of journalists from the Boston Globe with their new editor instruct them to research on sexual abuse of children by priests. So their lead only gets bigger and puts them to recover more evidence in order to publish. How they come up with the story that shake up not only the nation, but the entire world is the remaining. A collection of bunch fine performances. There's no lead actors in this. Everyone is in the supporting roles. Out of 6, it got nominated both male and female in the category of supporting role for the Academy Awards. I am very disappointed, Mark Ruffalo's performance in 'Infinitely Polar Bear' deserved another nominee. Anyway, this 15 year old story still looks a hot topic. It was a great comeback for the director after critics assaulted him with their words for his previous film 'The Cobbler' only to show their rage on Sandler. It is a must-must see. Beware, is is not your weekend entertainer, but based on the real. 8/10
Andres Gomez2016-04-11
★ 7/10
Spotlight story is interesting and has a good cast which performs very well, but the feeling of the story is flat. First, they are talking about abuses to children but you feel almost the whole time that they are following the lead of any other story almost as bureaucrats. There is not much of sensitivity put into the matter. Second, they are exposing a huge case of system "missbehavior" (to say the least) in the Catholic Church hierarchy and you see how the whole city of Boston is treating this institution with great care. Then, this movie is about showing to the world how the exposition was done and the treatment to the Catholic Church is almost as exquisite as the one that has enabled this institution to hide all this cases. For gods sake! These people are criminals covering the crimes of even bigger criminals and it seems like we still cannot face them and tell them clearly and to their faces the horrible things they have tolerated and hidden.
mattwilde1232017-03-09
★ 8/10
This was a very shocking and well made film. It is about the scandal involving a cover-up of Catholic priests molesting children in the Boston area. I was surprised with the delicate nature of the film's script and how well it was handled. It had a very solid ensemble cast which helped make the film moving and horrific in parts. I am glad that a film like this won Best Picture at the Academy Awards as it had a very important message (even if I was rooting for 'The Revenant'). ★★★★