Crisp Criticism - "Spotlight", "Concussion", "The Look of Silence"

by

Julien Faddoul

Spotlight **

The true story of how The Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese.

Bulky, engrossing, somewhat televisual delineation on the importance of brilliant journalism that, despite all its merits in both its prose and performance, would have been even stronger with a more vivid cinematic trajectory.

d – Tom McCarthy

w – Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer

ph – Masanobu Takayanagi

pd – Stephen H. Carter

m – Howard Shore

ed – Tom McArdle

cos – Wendy Chuck

p – Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Blye Pagon Faust

Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup, Jamey Sheridan, Len Cariou, Paul Guilfoyle, Elena Wohl, Maureen Keiller, Neal Huff, Michael Cyril Creighton, Richard Jenkins, Gary Galone

Concussion

In Pittsburgh, a pathologist uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.

An agitprop movie: All message and no motive, poorly shot and with a hammy performance from its star.

wd – Peter Landesman   (Based on the Article by Jeanne Marie Laskas)

ph – Salvatore Totino

pd – David Crank

m – James Newton Howard

ed – William Goldenberg

cos – Dayna Pink

p – Elizabeth Cantillon, Ridley Scott, Larry Shuman, David Wolthoff

Cast: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Albert Brooks, Arliss Howard, Paul Reiser, Luke Wilson, David Morse

The Look of Silence ***

A man that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed his brother under the guise of an eye exam.

A sequel of sorts to the director’s previous film The Act of Killing. Where that film anatomized the murders from the perpetrators point of view, this one tells it from the victims’, brilliantly conveying an easily attainable yet inconceivable hell that can occur when people keep quiet and do nothing. Vital.

d – Joshua Oppenheimer

ph – Lars Skree

ed – Nils Pagh Andersen

p – Signe Byrge Sørensen

Cast: Adi Rukun