Spotlight 4K 2015 Ultra HD 2160p

Based on real events, this is the story of a journalistic investigation into one of the most notorious sex scandals in US history.

Reporters from a Boston newspaper expose cases of pedophilia involving members of the Church...

User Review

Your perception, assessment, and impressions of Tom McCarthy's film Spotlight depend entirely on what you expect from it. If you are interested in how journalistic investigations (any journalistic investigations) are conducted, if you like documentaries, then you will definitely enjoy this film. However, if you want to see a powerful drama, a confrontation between the church and society in the form of the Spotlight journalists, you may be disappointed.

While the acting and storytelling are excellent, it's hard to find anything special in the Boston journalists' investigation itself. There is nothing new in how they expose the clergy—talking to victims, studying library books and old newspaper clippings—it's all quite standard and typical. The only thing that sets this story apart from hundreds of others is the subject of the investigation: the abuse of children by clergy members. This is bound to shock, attract attention, and make people think and look around. And the fact that this story, first published in the pages of a newspaper, gained widespread fame thanks to the silver screen, is undoubtedly a plus for the filmmakers.

But you still expect something more from a feature film than just a statement of fact. And there was everything needed for that something more! The focus on the journalistic investigation killed the very idea of the confrontation between the Boston Globe and the Catholic Church. It is very surprising that the film did not show the church's intrigues, how it interfered with the investigation, what internal “showdowns” took place in the diocese, how the priests accused of violence behaved and what they felt. Therefore, it seems rather absurd that in the film, in essence, all the church's opposition is embodied in a lawyer who covered up the victims' complaints in court but revealed their names at the first threat.

There are quite a few omissions, miscalculations, and unanswered questions in how the actions of the Boston newspaper's representatives are portrayed. For example, it is completely unclear why the newly arrived editor of the newspaper, finding himself in a new city in a new position, fearlessly and relentlessly takes on the case of priests' abuse of children, or why information about crimes in the church that came to the newspaper several years ago was only used for a formal newspaper article. All of this could have resulted in unexpected detective stories, but... As a result, in a film that claims to be a powerful drama, the most touching moment is the episode when the grandmother of the heroine R. MacAdams reads a newspaper article with the names of the exposed priests, and the most shocking and impressive moment is the final credits with the names of cities and countries where similar transgressions by church ministers have been established.

In addition, after watching the film, it is difficult to talk about the “courage” of the creators, who allegedly were not afraid to tell the truth. The truth is not worth much when only part of the ‘criminal pyramid’ is exposed. After all, all these crimes would have been impossible over many years without the connivance, concealment, and tacit consent of the police, judges, and city officials. But for some reason, at every opportunity in the film, the name of the cardinal of the diocese is mentioned, but not a single name of those in power who are also guilty of what happened. In all this, it is not courage that is evident, but rather “the thoughtfulness of necessary exposure” and populism.

Thus, Spotlight is an Oscar-bait film in the worst sense of the words, where a high-profile topic, impeccable style, and talented acting hide a superficial, unpretentious plot, faded and devoid of color, like an old newspaper clipping.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (84.2 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
#Korean: FLAC 2.0 (Commentary by director Yim Pil-sung (Antarctic Journal, Scarlet Innocence) and film critic Han Dong-won)

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French (Canadian), French (Parisian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Iberian), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.