10 Great Films That Are Ugly On Purpose

Biographical drama Spotlight may well be the most visually unremarkable film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, yet that was also entirely by design on the part of director Tom McCarthy.

Spotlight dramatises The Boston Globe's investigations into child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Boston area, and is effectively shot to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Given the severity of the film's ripped-from-the-headlines story, McCarthy clearly designed the visuals to resemble "real life" as closely as possible: flat lighting, a washed-out colour grade, and totally unimaginative handheld camerawork.

This helps give Spotlight a docu-drama feel and allows the audience to focus entirely on the actors and what they're saying at all times.

It also helps prevent the film's salacious story from feeling heightened in any way: the mundanity of the visuals keep it grounded in even its more dramatic moments, confirming that the very banality of evil is what allowed the abuse to happen for so long.

Sure, it meant that Spotlight didn't end up nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar, but the trade-off is that it successfully funnelled viewer attention in all the right places.