There are some stories in life that you hear about and you just can’t imagine that these stories could be true. That is how powerful these kinds of stories can be and they can be real game changers. That was certainly the case with today’s film Spotlight which highlights the child molestation scandal in the City of Boston. Spotlight was an investigative team that worked at the Boston Globe that took on stories that they felt the public needed to know about. In the year 2000 or 2001, a new man in charge at the Globe by the name of Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) came in and suggested a story to his Spotlight team that involved the catholic church covering up the child molestation cases in Boston. The film follows the team as they expose the truth as they became the voice of the voiceless. The film stars Michael Keaton (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)) as Walter Robinson, Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) as Mike Rezendes, Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls) as Sacha Pfeiffer, John Slattery (Iron Man 2) as Ben Bradlee, Jr., Stanley Tucci (The Terminal) as Mitchell Garabedian, Billy Crudup (Watchmen) as Eric Macleish, Neal Huff (Big Daddy) as Phil Saviano, Jamey Sheridan (The Ice Station) as Jim Sullivan, and the film was directed by Tom McCarthy (The Cobbler).
If you’re expecting a film with a lot of action, then this isn’t the film for you because there’s a lot of investigative research involved in the film. The other side to it is that you see the struggle these guys went through to try and unlock the story. You see all of the red tape and you see all the people involved that just bury the story. You end up learning what they could do and what they had to do to try and get viable sources. The film is just absolutely shocking and you can see why the Catholic church took such a hit after this case was exposed by the Globe. One of the biggest elements of these types of films is the acting and the story. Those are the key essentials for these types of films to survive and be great. I am here to say that I was thoroughly impressed with the acting especially from Mark Ruffalo who after a while just stole the show. Rachel McAdams also did a phenomenal job in the film which leads to my next statement. I am not surprised that Rachel and Mark were nominated for Oscars because they were amazing. The story as you can tell from what I wrote was also amazing and it had to be. It’s a story driven film as I said before. If you love films that are based on true stories then you should check this one out. I am going to give the film an A for a final grade.
I think I have mentioned before that I usually do not like to watch films that are based on movies, but what can you do when Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) stars in the movie. The movie that I chose for today is called The 5TH Wave and it follows a young girl named Cassie (Moretz) as she recounts each horrific wave of the alien takeover. You see one day the aliens showed up and they slowly began taking over the earth trying to eliminate the humans. All Cassie has left in the world is her little brother Sam (Zackary Arthur), but Sam was taken away by the military who said they were there to help. All Cassie wants to do is get back to Sam before it’s too late. The film also stars Gabriela Lopez (Million Dollar Arm) as Lizbeth, Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) as Ben Parish, Ron Livingston (Office Space) as Oliver Sullivan, Tony Revolori (Dope) as Dumbo, Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Vosch, Maria Bello (Prisoners) as SGT. Reznik, Maika Monroe (It Follows) as Ringer, Talitha Bateman (Life Grows On) as Teacup, Alex Roe (The Calling) as Evan Walker, and the film was directed by J Blakeson (The Disappearance Of Alice Creed).
Most of the teen aimed book films that we have seen never deal with what has happened, you just assume that some bad things happened. This film deals with what happened and it moves through the different waves which is pretty much everyone’s fear. Giant waves as one of the waves, losing electricity to make us act like animals, and so on and so forth. I have to be perfectly honest and say that this actually wasn’t that bad of a film, it was actually pretty good. Chloë Grace Moretz was as good as you would expect her to be, but for me Maika Monroe was awesome as the bad ass chick that you don’t mess with. I had been waiting to see her in a film since I had seen her amazing performance in It Follows. The movie also has all the things you would want as far as the story is concerned with the twists (I never read the book) and the paranoia of who is human and who is an alien pretending to be human? The cinematography is great especially during the flooding scenes and the acting was very good. Now as far as a second film is concerned, I have no idea because I don’t remember if this film did well in the theaters or not to warrant a second film. I actually would love to see what happens next to our protagonists. So, I am going to recommend this film cause it’s worth at least a watch. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 