Spotlight is a great example of direction and writing coming together to tell a solid story from start to finish. I actually went into this expecting to hate it because of the subject matter because I didn't want to have to sit through a 2 hour movie where they show what had happened. It's only hinted at in the very first scene of the movie and that was just showing how the lawyer showed up and get the priest out of hot water. The rest of the flick, to my surprise and one that I greatly appreciated, was more or less shining a spotlight on a team of reporters that put together a massive puzzle, piece by piece until they uncover the corruption by the Church at the highest levels. Basically the entire movie is one long detective story, albeit with reporters digging up the dirt. The director had to be on their A-game because he was going to have to carry the bulk of this once they got it into the editing room. There is no dead-weight anywhere to be found. Very surprised to see how captivated I was with Spotlight. I highly recommend this for sure. A great cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.