I would like to introduce to you to the first movie of 2016 that has rendered me speechless. And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t alone as no one left their seats when the lights went back on and the credits were rolling up. No one. That movie is Spotlight.

Let me be honest for a moment here. I was interested to watch the movie but was not particularly impressed about the trailer as I was when reading the summary of the movie. But I gave it a chance as I was not interested to watch any other movies that were out this week. (I’m not fond of financial movies so The Big Short is out. I hate horror movies so The Tag-Along is never going to be in the list. I’m not interested in a bunch of cowboys in The Hateful Eight stranded in the snow either.) And boy, am I ever so glad that I decided to watch Spotlight.

Spotlight is based on a true story of a group of Boston Globe’s investigative reporters who were tasked to dig up on one of the best hidden scandals and ultimately, taking on one of the biggest institutions in the world – the Catholic Church. An uphill task that had lots of obstacles… or just one big one, really.

This movie deserves all the praise it has received from critics and audience alike. The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation itself is brave but making it into a movie is even more courageous and bold. Gathering all these stories from the staff and making it into an approximately 2-hour movie is not an easy task to do. On top of that, trying to make the audience sit up and be interested is another ballgame. But Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer managed to do just that.

It’s a brilliant masterpiece that deserved the recognition it gets from the Oscars but let’s face it – the investigation was not the only uphill task. Oscars had a lot of great nominations (despite the lack of diversity but that’s another story that we shall not get into – at least not in my blog). Spotlight is just one of those great nominations. I hope it wins something at the Oscars – my best bet is Best Director.

Beyond the storyline, the acting was just as great. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams playing the “heroes” behind the investigation, portraying their constant determination to reveal the truth and in their way helping the victims, are nothing short of brilliance. And adding Stanley Tucci as Mitchell Garabedian into the casting lineup is awesome because anything Stanley Tucci touches is gold. Have you ever not loved any role this man played? Yeah, I know.

I have nothing negative to say about this movie and before I start rambling on and on about how good the movie, I shall stop here and just give it a rating of 5 out of 5.

Trailer…