"Spotlight" Review

OP-ROB RATING: LEGEND

“Spotlight” is a film directed by Thomas McCarthy about The Boston Globe’s investigation of sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in and around Boston. Within the Globe, the particular investigative team is called “Spotlight” and is led by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton). Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James), and Ben Bradlee (John Slattery) make up the rest of the investigative team. In the opening scenes these characters roam about the busy office of the Globe working on finding a new topic that deserves Spotlight’s attention. Their choice is essentially made for them when the new editor of the Globe, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), pushes Robby to investigate the Catholic Church and the possibility of a sex abuse scandal involving more than a few rogue priests. As a new editor, a Jew, and a non-Bostonian, Baron is not the most popular man in the office at the beginning of the film. Despite a fair amount of pushback, Robby and his team reluctantly begin work. Within the first couple weeks of investigation, the Spotlight team discovers that they have stumbled upon something far bigger than expected. As each reporter discovers more bad priests, more victims, more cover-ups, and more excuses, the story might risk losing focus. However, in “Spotlight” McCarthy sticks to the actual reporters, as each is affected by the investigation in different and profound ways.

“Spotlight” deals with such horrific issues that it is often hard to watch. In one scene where Sacha interviews a survivor, she explains that he must give more detail than simply saying, "molested". For the sake of her story she needs to know exactly what happened. Many of the interviews with victims are disturbing and gut-wrenching. As the film reveals, many of the individuals who are molested by priests go on to lead abject adult lives filled with emotion instability, drug addiction and sometimes suicide. The scenes with survivors revealing sickening details are tough to sit through, but even tougher are the scenes where the bigger picture is revealed. The revelation that it is not just “a few bad apples” in the priesthood is the hardest to stomach. A watershed moment in the film comes when an expert reveals to the Spotlight team that extensive research indicates that 6% of priests are involved in pedophilic activity during their careers. After hearing this statistic the team simply sits in shock; so does the audience.

The most impressive aspect of “Spotlight” is the simplicity of the film. Most scenes are presented an unloaded frame, with people simply speaking to one another. Characters talk to each other and McCarthy allows them to act instead of constantly cutting to close-ups or ramping up a shot. While all of the performances are excellent, the very best are delivered by Stanley Tucci as Mitchell Garabedian and Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rizendes. Garabedian is an explosive lawyer for those affected by pedophile priests. He is a man who knows just how horrible the situation is and how evil the are actions to cover it up. Rizendes is one of the reporters on the story, and the investigation pulls at him the most visibly. As a lapsed Catholic, Rizendes explains in one scene how he thought that he would always return to the faith. Even though he was no longer a practicing Catholic, the fact that it was still there for him was important, and what Spotlight has discovered has destroyed any possibility of return to the church. As Rizendes finishes his thought, he explains to Sacha that it’s a “shitty feeling”.

  I had seen the Alex Gibney documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” before seeing “Spotlight”, so I was pretty familiar with this widespread problem. Gibney’s documentary is quite good, but it gets so wound up in the overall spectacle of the scandal that it feels somewhat detached. “Spotlight”, however, is anything but distant. The dialogue is intuitive and stimulating. Each progression of the story is pointed and concise. While the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is a major theme of the film, “Spotlight” is focused on the courageous men and women who brought it to light. While it is certainly not a film that I would watch for enjoyment, “Spotlight” is a superb work of film, and vitally important as a topic of contemporary society.

"Spectre" Review

OP-ROB RATING: BUST

When Daniel Craig was first cast for the role of James Bond, a great many people swore he was too short, too coarse, and too blonde. Ian Fleming probably rolled over in his grave when the decision came out. However, with "Casino Royale", Craig not only proved he deserved to be 007, but also added an unprecedented level of depth to the storied character. With uneven storytelling, "Quantum of Solace" took a step back from the excellence of "Casino Royale", but Blonde Bond came surging back to life under the direction of Sam Mendes with “Skyfall” in 2012. Now, in what may be his last outing, Daniel Craig is back in the new film “Spectre” with Mendes again directing.

Picking up from "Skyfall", Bond is still trying to stop a secretive web of enemies, meanwhile trying solve mysteries from his past. Starting off in Mexico City and bouncing from there to London, Rome, Austria, Tunisia and back to London, Bond picks up clues and ultimately comes face to face with his most powerful opponent yet. This villain is his estranged step brother, Ernst Blofeld played by Christoph Waltz. "Spectre" is a quite beautiful and stylish affair. The locations shot in the film are striking, with the snow covered Austrian mountains, the streets of Rome and London, and the sandy desert in Tunisia. Even the polluted streets of Mexico City look terrific. Bond and his main female companion in the film, Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) can be observed wearing fine designer clothing looking like they just stepped out of a photo shoot with Vanity Fair.

“Spectre” is visually tantalizing, however the story that unfolds is far less exciting than the visuals and the action scenes.  Unlike its predecessor, "Spectre" opts for the typical Bond formula. There are several sexual encounters, a brutish henchman, an evil lair, and a cerebral super villain. Sam Mendes includes some nice throwbacks to the old Bond films, but the story lacks any real substance. The most confusing aspect of "Spectre" is the main love interest, Dr. Madeleine Swann. Bond and Swann meet briefly and inexplicably fall in love after a few short scenes, but the relationship is never developed/explained. Another shabby piece of "Spectre" occurs when Bond is subjected to torture by tiny needles that literally do nothing. In the very same scene the “super smart” Blofeld makes the boneheaded mistake of not confiscating Bond's watch which any old bloke knows can just as easily blow up as tell the time. If that’s not baffling enough, Bond manages to shoot down a helicopter with one nicely placed bullet from his Walther PPK pistol. These things cross the line and make “Spectre” feel more like a satire about spy films rather than a serious Bond film.

The funniest and most memorable scene in the movie happens when Bond confronts a mouse that scurries into his hotel room in Tunisia. Sitting, slouched in a chair drinking a Heineken, Bond points his pistol at the rodent and asks, "Who sent you? Who are you working for?" Besides the humor, this is one of the few scenes where Bond becomes human. He's just a guy drinking beer and having a little fun. It's this more relatable side of Bond that made Craig a game changer. When the hero has “Everyman” qualities it makes his story more believable and realistic to the viewer. This same idea can be seen in "The Dark Knight" when the mighty Batman strains in his office chair trying to stitch his own shoulder up. Unfortunately, "Spectre" misses the opportunity to reveal more of the character of James Bond, and opts for cheap thrills and a rickety storyline resulting in one of the biggest disappointments this movie season.

"Steve Jobs" Review

OP-ROB RATING: ALL-STAR

       The most recent biopic of the Apple icon Steve Jobs is directed by Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”, “127 Hours”) and written by Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network”). The film is simply titled, “Steve Jobs” and stars Michael Fassbender in the lead role. The majority of “Steve Jobs” takes place in three, approximately one-hour windows in 1984, 1988 and 1998, right before the launches of the Macintosh 128k, the NeXT Computer and finally the iMac. The theme of chaos before each launch is crystallized when Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) sighs and tells his colleague and confidant Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), “It’s like five minutes before every launch everyone goes to the bar and then tells me what they really think of me.” Several flashbacks are sprinkled throughout the film, including the iconic founding of Apple in Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, as well as the “firing” of Jobs after the commercial failure of the Macintosh.

       Within the scaffolding of these three major events, "Steve Jobs" narrows in on three different relationships, each of which reveals a definitive piece of the main character.  These three people are John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), the former CEO of Apple; Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), a fellow co-founder of Apple; and Lisa Brennan (Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, Makenzie Moss), Jobs’ daughter.

         The Sculley and Jobs relationship is one of rival ideologies. Sculley is trying to run a company the produces some form of profit, while Jobs is more focused on what he believes to be the future. Jobs’ ideals are made clear through his unrelenting devotion to a “closed system”, denying customization of the Macintosh, NeXT and iMac computers. Sculley understood at the time of the Macintosh’s release, that a closed system fatally inhibits sales. This is just one of the many examples of Jobs’ futuristic vision getting in the way of immediate financial success of the earliest Apple computers.  (You say “one of many examples” – are there others in the movie?)  In the scene where Jobs is voted out by the shareholders in an ultimatum, Jobs exclaims, “I sat in a garage and invented the future because artists lead and hacks ask for a show of hands."

            Another major facet of the film is Jobs’ friendship with Steve Wozniak. Throughout the film, Wozniak seeks recognition from Jobs for his part in starting the company as well as creating the Apple II computer. The Apple II was the company’s first commercial product that had been funding the Macintosh. Jobs had very little to do with its design and function and refused Wozniak a public acknowledgement at the launch of the Macintosh in ‘84. Before the launch of the NeXT, Wozniak and Jobs have a heated conversation in the orchestra bay of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. At this point in the story, Jobs has gained incredible fame and is recognized as a genius while Wozniak remains unknown. Feeling slighted, Wozniak lashes out at his friend saying, “You can’t write code. You’re not an engineer. You’re not a designer. You can’t put a hammer to a nail. I built the circuit board… What do you do?” Boyle and Sorkin uncover another piece of Jobs’ persona when he responds, “I play the orchestra. And you’re a good musician. You sit right there (pointing to an empty chair). You’re the best in your row.”

            Finally there is the relationship between Jobs and his daughter, Lisa Brennan. In 1984, Jobs refuses to acknowledge any relation to the little girl, citing a “twenty-eight percent chance” that her father could be any man in America. In the scene before the iMac launch in 1998, it is revealed that Jobs has refused to pay Lisa’s college tuition fees. This aspect of Jobs’ life is the most complicated and raises the most questions about his moral standing and legacy. However, in the film’s dramatic culminating scene Jobs seems to come to terms with his daughter and they share a tender moment together.

           "Steve Jobs" presents a muddled picture of a man most people want so desperately to celebrate and admire. The facts of the film have been hotly disputed by Jobs' former friends, colleagues and family. However, in a biopic such as this do the details matter as much as the attitude? Every human being who has had the opportunity to use an Apple product is aware of Steve Jobs' brilliance and innovation. What Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin have done with "Steve Jobs" is make us aware of his complexity. Whether or not the drama is 100% accurate, "Steve Jobs" is an immersive and intriguing exploration into the character of the most influential businessman of the past five decades.