12 Great Movies That Are Visually Flat
1. Spotlight
Spotlight is a brilliant drama film and one of the best Best Picture winners of the last thirty years. It tells the story of a journalistic investigation that exposed child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston.
Spotlight has a great script and terrific performances, but it does have basic, mundane cinematography. This could put some viewers off, but ironically enough, this lack of visual flair arguably adds to the film in many ways.
One of Spotlight's biggest strengths is that it never sensationalises, manipulates or becomes exploitative. It allows the facts and story to speak for themselves and this transparent visual style contributes to this a lot. Besides, Spotlight is also very well-edited and this distracts from any issues with Thomas McCarthy's direction.
Overall, Spotlight is a real anomaly in that its lack of visual oomph actually enhances the entire movie. It offers conclusive proof that not every film needs to be visually stunning in order to be great. Sometimes, a stunning cast and script are all you need.