Spotlight Review - 8 Reasons Why It Deserves To Be An Oscar Favourite

5. Unshowy Direction That Aids The Story

We've reached a point in cinematic development where "good" direction has become indistinct with "showy" direction. If you can come out of a movie and not be able to pin-point some really stylish moments, then clearly the director hasn't really brought that much to the project. It's an off assessment, and no movie shows it better than the restrained confidence of Spotlight. Tom McCarthy actively lets the actors and the dialogue lead, shepherding them through the story rather than trying to steal the film for himself. It's a bold move given how prone audiences are for misreading film language, but his complete devotion to this restrained approach mean it's pulled off. In fact, the closest we get to trademark director moments comes when group dialogue exchanges are framed in a slow zoom out, teasing out even more tension from the harrowing revelations at hand, but the focus is still firmly on the story and characters. The same is true of the plentiful montages, which far from being throwaway narrative jumps are constructed and placed to tie into the story's escalation.