Spotlight.

One of my favourite films and one I've seen many times is Station Agent (2003). It involves a quiet withdrawn unmarried man with dwarfism who has a deep love of anything connected to railways he even works in a model train hobby shop. When his boss passes he discovers that he has been bequeathed an abandoned railway station along with some stock. This wonderfully evocative movie was Tom McCarthy’s debut film and one that won him a number of awards. Four years after this initial film McCarthy won more plaudits for his second feature The Visitor (2007) which starred the great Richard Jenkins, who plays a lonely middle aged man who finds himself having to face up to life's problems when he meets a Syrian refugee he finds living in his New York flat. After making two such wonderful films McCarthy next two feature films Win Win (2011) and The Cobbler (2014) did not quite get the same acclaim. But all has changed with Spotlight (2015).

 

The Spotlight Team. 

This biographical drama deservedly won McCarthy an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and another for Best Picture. Similar to Truth (2015) it deals with investigative journalism but this time it's the Roman Catholic Church and its involvement in the covering up of widespread and systemic child sex abuse that comes under the microscope. Based on a series of stories by the actual Spotlight Team that earned The Boston Globe a Pulitzer Prize for ‘courageous, comprehensive coverage in its disclosures of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church’ in 2003.

An engrossing fact based story that keeps you on the edge of your seat for its full 128 minute running time and again like All the President’s Men (1976) and Truth it highlights the power of journalism where in its true form investigates facts, verifies its sources normally to stop unlawful practices and all for the benefit of the wider community.  I cannot recommend this film highly enough and its another of these splendid movies where the action is in the dialogue all acted out by a stellar cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdam, Leiv Schreiber and Stanley Tucci each of whom give a career best performance.

Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) .

It may be stagey and wordy but don’t let that deter you from seeing this outstanding American satirical black comedy. Alejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican director that was responsible for helming some of the best films I have seen in the last 15 years, Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) Babel (2006) and Biutiful (2010) and he has now co-written, produced, and directed one of the most intriguing films I have seen in 2015. Birdman (2014) is the story of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) who is trying to revive his career by writing, directing and starring in a Broadway adaptation of a story by the American short story writer Raymond Carver What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Thomson had originally been a famous Hollywood star playing a superhero known as Birdman but is know virtually forgotten by most people other than his most devoted fans. Also involved in this make or break production are the producer Jake (Zach Galifianakis) Riggan’s best friend and lawyer, Riggans Girlfriend Laura (British actress Andrea Riseborough) his daughter and assistant Sam (Emma Stone) who is a recovering drug addict and first time Broadway hopeful Lesley (Naomi Watts).

 

Riggan and his alto ego.

McDonalds turn up everywhere. 

The rehearsals are not going well and one of the other actors doesn’t seem to be able to hack it. Fortunately for Riggan, but unfortunately for the actor, a rather large light fitting falls on his head therefore bringing any further involvement in the play to an abrupt end. A replacement is required post-haste and thanks to Lesley the replacement turns out to be none other than the brilliant but at times volatile, actor Mike Shiner (Edward Norton). By the way I have neglected to tell you that Riggan Thomson is tormented by strange occurrences where his alto ego Birdman speaks to him encouraging him to re-engage with his previous character which involves flying and making things levitate around his changing room! The involvement of Shiner in the production does nothing for Riggans metal state and as opening night approaches things are not looking good. 

 

Daughter Sam....

....girlfriend Laura....

....and hopeful actress Lesley.

This is a somewhat different movie from your standard cinematic release. The cinematographer Emmanual Lubezki, who has worked with Terrence Malick, The Coen Brothers and Alfonso Cuaron amongst many others, was tasked with making the movie seem like one long shot and his use of the camera is exceptional.  Antonio Sanchez composed the majority of soundtrack. The reason for using a Mexican Jazz drummer was explained by Iñárritu as enabling him to ‘structure scenes’ he went on to say in an interview “The drums, for me, was a great way to find the rhythm of the film... In comedy, rhythm is king, and not having the tools of editing to determine time and space, I knew I needed something to help me find the internal rhythm of the film." We get to see the drumming in various scenes sometimes in the corridor of the theatre and sometimes in the street; the great thing is that they are not part of the narrative! The score earned a nomination at both the Golden Globes and the BAFTA’s.

 

Discussions with Shiner are not going well....

....and the producer looks worried!

The best thing about this movie, other than its wonderful screenplay, is the acting, with Michael Keaton the stand out turn, but in reality all the other members of the cast are not to far behind Keaton’s high standards: this is supported by the fact that it has been nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Actor for Keaton, Best Supporting Actor for both Emma Stone and Edward Norton and Best Director for Iñárritu.  It’s a film I would certainly recommend you go to see, and as I have said about this director’s previous work all his films are on a different level from your normal boring mainstream multiplex offerings and Birdman is no different.