“Spotlight,” major movie chains, ongoingA low-key ensemble film about the need for truth telling in a world of lies, “Spotlight” does a number of things correct, and in its own simple way is radical for its refusal to fall back on familiar narrative tropes. Directed by Tom McCarthy (no, not that Tom McCarthy) from a script he wrote with Josh Singer, the film tells the story of the Boston Globe’s investigative-reporting team (here played by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James, all doing their best not to butcher their Basstan accent) who, in a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles, broke open the story of widespread abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests in the area. The group at first doesn’t want to touch the story — they essentially have complete control over what stories they chase — but are prompted by the gentle prodding of their new boss, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), who, with his Judaism and his big-city paper resume, can see the lack of coverage the story has received only because he is an outsider.While the main characters certainly fall into a template — Ruffalo is the obsessed one, a little crazed; McAdams the level-headed one; Keaton the leader who is willing to admit when he is wrong) — there is a lack of what might be traditionally called “character development.” We get little things, like the fact that Ruffalo’s character is recently separated from his wife, and that McAdams is married and is close to her grandmother. But that’s about as much as we get, and it’s enough. The film dives into the investigation and the drama of work: reporters digging through files, the joy of finding a clip that confirms a lead, the creation of a spreadsheet pulling all their work into a cohesive whole. There has maybe never been a film that constructs such a dynamic sequence out of making a spreadsheet as “Spotlight.”Sure, it’s a one-dimensional approach. But who needs more than that? These characters don’t need to be relatable, or even likeable, really — most of them seem like they wouldn’t be much fun to be around. “Spotlight” is a film about process, the search being just as meaningful as the result.“Carnival of Souls,” The Museum of Modern Art, November 12One of the many things to check out at this year’s “To Save and Project” festival at the Museum of Modern Art is Herk Harvey’s “Carnival of Souls” (1962), a deliriously seductive low-budget ghost story about a church organist who, after surviving a car crash off a bridge and emerging out of the water safe, believes she might actually be dead. The film will be presented in its original theatrical version and has been restored from the original camera negative by the Academy Film Archive. (Read our piece about the lost films of Orson Welles, also screening at “To Save and Project,” as well as our list of other films to not-miss at the festival.)“Out of the Past,” Museum of the Moving Image, November 13, 15Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 lovelorn noir stars Robert Mitchum as a former private investigator who is pulled back into his former life by a wealthy criminal (Kirk Douglas) and his girlfriend (Jane Greer), who he was once hired to follow and ended up falling in love with. Tourneur is known for the stylistic mood-pieces he made with producer Val Lewton for RKO in the early 1940s — “Cat People” (1942), “I Walked with a Zombie” (1943), “The Leopard Man” (1943) — and the films remain stunningly effective. “Out of the Past” is screening as part of the essential “Lonely Places” series at the Museum of the Moving Image, which runs through December 20. Expect more from this series showing up in this column over the next few weeks.“Tokyo Drifter,” Film Society of Lincoln Center, November 13Seijun Suzuki’s stylistic whirlwind of gangster poses and pop-art décor explodes across the screen in a splash of vibrant colors, and is the perfect introduction to this director’s work. Equal parts absurd — particularly the musical number — and jocular, this cartoonish epic deserves to be on a screen. “Tokyo Drifter” will be shown as part of “Action and Anarchy: The Films of Seijun Suzuki,” which runs through November 17.“Entertainment,” Film Society of Lincoln Center, opens November 13Rick Alverson’s latest film is one that is bound to fall by the wayside. But everyone I know who has seen it is obsessed with it. Its polarizing main character — Gregg Turkington playing a version of his long-running comedic character, Neil Hamburger — and abstruse narrative construction make a film that, although difficult a times, demands multiple viewings. (You can read our interview with Rick Alverson, from the November issue of Modern Painters, here.)
↧