We won!

[Dick Whitman]

"Spotlight" won Best Picture last night. It deserves its own thread.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

We?

 

[heyabbott]

We?

Pedophiles

 

[cranberry]

I rented it after golf and before the Oscars last night. It was very good. Overall, I think it was a pretty weak "best picture" field this year. I wasn't blown away by any of the nominated films. I'd have gone with The Big Short.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's interesting to me that most of my newspaper chums think about it as a movie about journalism. My non-journalism friends seem to see it first and foremost about the Catholic church.

 

[Steak Snabler]

 

[TigerVols]

Sure, it's about journalism...the journalism where a few good sources show up at your feet then you ask around and develop a few more and then you discover in the basement of your building what is in essence the high school annuals of your story targets, and, bang, Bob's your uncle.

The Spotlight reporter team did great work and deserves every accolade, but I thought it made for a mediocre move.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Sure, it's about journalism...the journalism where a few good sources show up at your feet then you ask around and develop a few more and then you discover in the basement of your building what is in essence the high school annuals of your story targets, and, bang, Bob's your uncle.

I've seen other people gripe about that part of the movie, as well, and I don't get it. Stories are frequently hiding in plain sight. It's the lack of a "Deep Throat" here that makes this a superior process film to "All the President's Men," I think.

 

[Ace]

If The Big Short had won, would Ragu have started this thread?

 

[Ace]

Sure, it's about journalism...the journalism where a few good sources show up at your feet then you ask around and develop a few more and then you discover in the basement of your building what is in essence the high school annuals of your story targets, and, bang, Bob's your uncle.

The Spotlight reporter team did great work and deserves every accolade, but I thought it made for a mediocre move.

I like that's what was real about it. The story is under your nose for years and you don't see it. And most stories like that need some kind of documentation so that the bosses will allow it to go into print.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

If The Big Short had won, would Ragu have started this thread?

No matter what movie won, a journalist wouldn't have started a thread.

 

[TigerVols]

I like that's what was real about it. The story is under your nose for years and you don't see it. And most stories like that need some kind of documentation so that the bosses will allow it to go into print.

I agree that that's what makes for great reporting and gets it in the paper. I agree that they shoeleather worn out on reporting this story is fantastic; but, again, I just didn't think it made for a very suspenseful drama. For example, they spent the entire movie setting up Church v. Paper, but then we never see a resolution of it.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Maybe I'd see this as more of a "win" for journalism if the industry hadn't spent the ensuing 15 years taking a collective **** on its legacy.

 

[Dick Whitman]

No matter what movie won, a journalist wouldn't have started a thread.

It's like the Marines.

Regardless, I'm just taking some time to rebuild my swing.

 

[bigpern23]

I rented it after golf and before the Oscars last night. It was very good. Overall, I think it was a pretty weak "best picture" field this year. I wasn't blown away by any of the nominated films. I'd have gone with The Big Short.

I thought it was a pretty strong year. I haven't seen The Revenant, but gather that it was pretty damn good. The Big Short, Room and Spotlight were all incredibly well done. If they still limited the field to five nominees, that would be four out of five that all had a legit chance at taking home the big one.

Spotlight and Room both blew me away.

It was nice to journalists portrayed in a positive manner for once. I think journalists have largely replaced lawyers as the preferred scumbag, asshole, unethical characters in Hollywood.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I thought it was a pretty strong year. I haven't seen The Revenant, but gather that it was pretty damn good. The Big Short, Room and Spotlight were all incredibly well done. If they still limited the field to five nominees, that would be four out of five that all had a legit chance at taking home the big one.

Spotlight and Room both blew me away.

It was nice to journalists portrayed in a positive manner for once. I think journalists have largely replaced lawyers as the preferred scumbag, asshole, unethical characters in Hollywood.

They treated lawyers fairly in "Spotlight," as well. More like hostages to the system they operate in than actual scumbags. The closest analogy to "Spotlight," thematically, is "The Wire." Both are really about the corrosive effect of institutional inertia.

 

[bigpern23]

They treated lawyers fairly in "Spotlight," as well. More like hostages to the system they operate in than actual scumbags. The closest analogy to "Spotlight," thematically, is "The Wire." Both are really about the corrosive effect of institutional inertia.

Agree with your first point. They easily could have portrayed lawyers as soulless profiteers, preying upon the victims of molestation for money. In a similar respect, The Big Short treated the hedge fund managers kindly. Again, they could have made them look like profiteers betting against the American economy, but instead gave the characters a healthy dose of self-doubt and humility about what they were doing. Given what they knew, and the system they were in, they'd have been doing themselves and their investors a disservice if they hadn't shorted the CDOs.

I've never seen The Wire, so I'm not sure about your second point.

 

[Dick Whitman]

And let me make it clear: Lawyers, including the lawyer in the movie running the "racket" that Keaton's character threatens to make the centerpiece of the Globe's reporting, are not blameless. I am the same poster who has made this same argument regarding soldiers in an unjust war, so I feel like I should make it here, too, for consistency's sake. The point isn't that the lawyers here were anywhere near heroic, but that they were human, and affected by particular forces bigger than themselves. Not everyone was meant to be a hero.

 

[DanOregon]

Given that the Best Picture award has recently honored films about silent movies, slavery and the Iraq War, other things America no longer goes for - honoring a movie about journalism is fitting.