Tag Archive: Tom McCarthy


Spotlight on the case. Holy shit! Hold the front page!

Filed under: Movies, Politics — Leave a comment
March 13, 2016

SPOTLIGHT directed by Tom McCarthy (USA, 2015)

 oscarometro2016spotlightHoly shit! Never has this exclamation carried more significance.

Based on actual events (isn’t everything?), the shit uncovered by the Spotlight team of fearless reporters of the Boston Globe at the turn of the Millennium indeed had the holiest of stenches.

The Roman Catholic priests in Boston who molested and abused young boys and girls turned out the be the tip of a dung heap of global proportions. As the credits roll, the printed list of subsequent cases found in parishes around the world is enough to make Jesus and the rest of us mere mortals weep.

Anything which widens the scope of the negative publicity against the hypocritical church establishment is welcome but I doubt that the Pope is quaking in his satin slippers after seeing this lackluster movie. In toning down the sensationalist elements of the story, it becomes more of a celebration of investigative journalism than a full-blooded indictment of this holy disorder. Continue reading →

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STATION AGENT

Filed under: Movies — 3 Comments
July 15, 2009

Station Agent is a gem of a movie.  I loved Tom McCarthy’s ‘The Visitor’ but this is even better.

It’s warm hearted without being mawkish, optimistic yet realistic, well written but far from wordy and features a small cast of characters you believe in and feel for.

The story centres around Fin McBride (Peter Dinklage)- a man whose height of 4’5″  forces liberals to reach for their dictionaries to find out what the most politically correct term is for an undersized person.

Fin himself rejects the word ‘midget’ and seems to prefer ‘dwarf’ but both terms sound derogatory to my ears. Maybe this partly a reflection of how rarely this condition is made visible in mainstream culture.

Ridiculed or treated like a freak he finds comfort in the inanimate world of trains – steam driven things rather than the glossy Amtrak style transport.

When the owner of the model train store he works at dies suddenly he has no job or home but inherits an isolated and disused train depot. Although he wants to be left to himself he finds himself drawn into the lives of the locals.

The difficulties of Fin’s life are central but the film goes beyond being a right-on story of needing to respect physical difference. The real triumph is in showing  how Fin bonds with those who,despite being physically ‘normal’,are social misfits like him.

It’s essentially the tale of friendship among outsiders and how isolated people learn to reach out and make connections.

If you’re looking for  an intelligent movie that leaves you with a warm glow inside, you should beg, borrow or buy a copy of this immediately.

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