Steelehouse Cinephile Fridays: Spotlight

It’s Cinephile Friday, which means Steelehouse is ready to steer you in the direction of a cinematically-satisfying weekend. This time around, we recommend Best Picture Oscar nominee Spotlight, which won the Best Cast Award this past week at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

As an early favorite last fall, Spotlight saw its front-runner status slide when Mad Max: Fury Road began to rack up critics citations and award nominations, followed by The Revenant virtually sweeping the Golden Globes in all major drama categories. Then last week, the Producers Guild honored The Big Short as the year’s best film, effectively putting the whole race into a complete free-for-all.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild may be bringing the awards season full circle. By honoring Spotlight with its top prize, SAG has shown where the actors branch of the Academy is leaning, and their membership is by far the largest. Still, historically speaking, the SAG Best Ensemble and Oscar Best Picture winners have matched up less than 50% of the time — only 10 out of 22 — so while the win certainly helps, it by no means predicts a lock.

See the film and decide for yourself. Director Tom McCarthy has crafted an important narrative that tackles a tough subject deftly. Gripping and compelling, yet subdued, Spotlight is nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Supporting Actress (Rachel McAdams), Original Screenplay, and Film Editing. Read Jeff Huston’s review here.