Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/640308
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2016 38 This Week IN CINEMAS TODAY St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 Met Opera in Cinema – Tan- nhäuser 14:30 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Dirty Grandpa (18) 20:50 Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Road Chip (U) 10:00, 12:10, 14:20, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50 20,000 Reasons (12) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (12) 10:15, 14:15, 18:00, 21:00 The Revenant (15) 10:20, 14:10, 17:30, 20:50 Daddy's Home (12) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Ride Along 2 (12) 10:00, 14:20, 16:15, 18:20, 21:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Casablanca (U) 14:00, 18:50 Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Road Chip (U) 14:05, 16:20, 18:30, 20:50 20,000 Reasons (12) 14:15, 16:25, 18:25, 21:05 Just Jim 14:00, 16:05, 21:05 The Danish Girl (15) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15 Goosebumps 3D (PG) 14:00, 16:15, 18:40, 21:00 Capture the Flag (U) 16:25, 21:10 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (12) 14:15, 18:00, 21:15, 23:00 The Hateful Eight (18) 14:15, 17:45, 21:10 The Revenant (15) 14:20, 17:50, 21:10, 23:00 Daddy's Home (12) 14:20, 16:30, 18:45, 21:05 The 33 (12) 14:25, 18:10, 20:55 Dirty Grandpa (18) 21:00, 23:20 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (PG) 14:30 Creed (12) 14:30, 18:00, 20:50, 23:35 Sunset Song (15) 14:00, 20:50 The 5th Wave (12) 14:30, 18:00, 20:55, 23:10 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Ride Along 2 (12) 10:30, 13:30, 16:00, 18:15, 20:45 Dirty Grandpa (18) 20:55 Goosebumps (PG) 10:35, 13:35, 16:00, 18:15, 20:50 The Revenant (15) 10:30, 13:50, 17:30 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (12) 10:45, 14:05, 18:00 20,000 Reasons (12) 11:05, 13:35, 15:45, 18:05, 21:00 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (U) 11:00, 13:30, 15:45, 18:00, 20:45 The 33 (12) 10:50, 14:00, 18:00, 21:00 JOURNALISTS make for good film protagonists. They're per- fectly poised to crack open mysteries and pursue equally interesting and/or eccentric characters. Much in the same way as detectives, they are ideal vehicles for both exposition and intrigue: it's perfectly justified to use them to transmit infor- mation to the audience, as that is very much the nature of their job. However, having journalists as either protagonists or support- ing characters is one thing… delving on the dynamics of the newsroom in particular is quite another. And while I can confirm that the job can have its share of drama and excitement, like any other job it's also often a grind, and it's not to be automatically assumed that a movie about the profession can be spun whole cloth with minimal effort. Luckily, director Tom McCa- rthy, who has diligently brought the Oscar-baiting Spotlight to the big screen, has both a keen eye for character and an admi- rable restraint in his directorial approach. Veteran newspaper editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) is brought in from Florida to lead the Boston Globe despite having very little familiarity with the city – and, more awkwardly still, an aversion to baseball – and finds a newsroom at the brink of greatness. As it turns out, their long-form investigative team, 'Spotlight', led by Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) has been sitting on a journalistic goldmine: the hint of an institutional cover-up of paedophile priests shuffling in and out of the city with very lit- tle consequence, and with vic- tims being dulled into silence by communal taboo. However, the explosive na- ture of this story becomes all the more apparent to Robby's dedicated team – including the tenacious Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel MacAdams) and Brian d'Arcy James (Matt Carroll) – that the more they dig, the more em- boldened they become about facing the very real consequenc- es of publishing the thorough and hard-hitting expose. The first thing you'll notice about Spotlight is that, in fact, very little pops up to attract your attention. McCarthy and his co- writer Josh Singer direct all their energies to flattening out the tangled legal web at the heart of this story. And though the basic contours of it may be intuitively familiar to all – sadly, the nar- rative of child abuse within the clergy has been drummed into us by now – the specifics of the matter when it comes to this particular story are intrinsically wended to Boston's – predomi- nantly Catholic – culture. So presenting this in a way that's both coherent and compel- ling is no mean feat, much more so when McCarthy employs zero visual flair to help him signpost things, and resists the urge to il- lustrate the cases that ignite the investigation in 'horrific' flash- backs and the like. Though the end result may be that of a 'TV movie' aesthetic, it's also an approach that lets us focus on the workings of the – brilliant – ensemble cast, and like the hard-working journal- ists that we root for from start to finish, it's simply focused on get- ting the job done as thoroughly and honestly as possible. Freed from the strictures of the Marvel Studios franchise he's firmly embedded in as Bruce Banner/Hulk, it's perhaps Mark Ruffalo who humanizes the process most of all. Hints of a private life are kept at a bare minimum – as they are for the rest of his colleagues – to let the awkward but tenacious hack win us over with his unscrupulous work ethic. And any sign that the film may veer towards Hol- lywood cliché and sentimental- ity are quashed in the way Marty Baron is depicted. Casting the imposing Liev Schreiber in the role, the easi- est choice for McCarthy would have been to depict him as the jerkoff new boss out for blood and adamant to bring his new underlings to heel. Nothing of that sort happens, however. Baron's grizzled low voice simply 'suggests' that the paper pursue their long-buried story about shocking clerical abuse – a story that will have them doing the equivalent of "suing the Church". And as most journalists will tell you… sometimes all you need is a second pair of eyes. By Teodor Reljic Hero hacks take on the clerical system ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ SCOOP ★ ★ ★ ★ TROOP ★ ★ ★ LOOP ★ ★ DROOP ★ POOP FILM The truth is out there: Boston Globe journalists Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel MacAdams), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Brian d'Arcy James (Matt Carroll), Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) and Ben Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery) take on the Boston clergy in this quiet but diligent drama SPOTLIGHT (12A) ★ ★ ★ ★