On November 7, an ordinary Friday, "Spotlight" appeared in a total of 10 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston, and attracted a large audience due to the huge acclaim it received at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In particular, Murphy's fans and some former victims of Catholicism have long been looking forward to the film.

During the day Friday, all theaters showing "Spotlight" were more than 90 percent occupied, which is in addition to professional film critics and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who can get admission for free.

For this film, professional film critics have long been gearing up and ready to do a big job.

For example, in this kind of film related to current affairs, their comments can naturally attract more fans, not to mention that one of the protagonists or villains of the film is still Catholic.

Just like Hollywood before, professional film critics are also cautious when it comes to religious subjects, for fear of causing some unnecessary trouble, but now it is different, from last winter to now, Catholicism has been exposed by the media countless scandals, and the criticism of Catholicism can be said to be completely value orientation and political correctness.

Probably many film critics couldn't wait to go to the theater to watch the film just after the screening, and by Friday afternoon, many well-known film critics had comments about "Focus" on the Internet or social platform columns.

In "Spotlight", Murphy Stanton expands from a scandal to a critique of the system, just like a thick documentary literature - a powerful narrative, peeling back the cocoon, advancing layer by layer, meticulous, coherent, neat, unsensational, and neatly edited, thus perfectly restoring the reporting journey of a media person. Finally, at the end of the office, I answered the phone and said "Focus." This brilliant ending is extremely shocking, and Murphy has completely brought this 'top-down institutional ugliness' to the screen, not only digging into the roots of the Catholic scandal, but also pointing to the indifference in the depths of human nature, which is thought-provoking. ”

-- Kenneth Turan

"Murphy Stanton's new film is a true recreation of the Spotlight Reporting Team's investigation into a large number of Catholic priests sexual abuse scandals, and the real events themselves are fascinating enough, not to mention a very neat and solid script and production, as well as the pace and rhythm of a similar thriller. The film also seems to deliberately downplay the characterization and drama, but it is fascinating with a calm and calm pace and a meticulous plot development, the soundtrack, cinematography and editing play an excellent supporting role, and the performances of several leading actors are just right, and everyone has a superb performance. The film's most successful is the separation of child abuse and sexuality, pointing out that this is the top-down institutional ugliness of the church, the world's most filthy organization. After reading it, people will lose all reverence for religion, although the content is cruel, but it is extremely comfortable to watch. ”

- Todd McCarthy

Almost all of the critic reviews that appear on the internet are positive.

In addition, the Boston Globe, which is closely related to the incident, also opened a front-page column and published a review of the film.

"Under the control of Murphy Stanton, who is also the screenwriter and director of this film, "Spotlight" has an extremely cold image style. On the one hand, the film's cold and dark tones succeed in creating the atmosphere of pain and depression that precedes the revelation of the scandal; On the other hand, in order to emphasize authenticity and objectivity, the film uses a spectator-like camera position and a more neutral medium and close-up shot in most scenes. ”

At the same time, Spotlight also shows remarkable maturity in its narrative. Throughout the film, the film neither magnifies the suffering of the victims in order to win the sympathy of the audience, nor does it deliberately scandalize specific clergy in order to establish villains, nor does it deliberately elevate the journalists in the 'Focus' column. The focus of the film is always on peeling back the cocoon of the case and the truth, and when the report is completed and the case is revealed, the film comes to an abrupt end, which is really evocative. ”

"The approach used by Focus is very restrained and restrained. It does not deliberately make moral judgments, does not deliberately preach, and does not deliberately shape the characters, but after the end of the film, its values, emotions and characters are all extremely vivid, which reflects the skill of director Murphy Stanton. ”

"In the process of advancing the plot, the film is really quiet and natural in the shaping of the characters and the final presentation of the film's theme. In other words, this is a serious film that resembles a documentary, and it achieves the most sensational effect with the least sensational means. ”

"In general, the film "Focus" has calm and restrained shots, clean editing, a gripping plot and emotional grip. I believe that all audiences who have watched the ending will have the same feeling, that is, under the seemingly peaceful image, director Murphy Stanton has given the film the power to shock the soul! ”

All kinds of praise from the media are desperately throwing at the heads of "Spotlight" and Murphy as if they don't want money, as if this film is the best Hollywood movie of the year.

On the one hand, Murphy and the film are hugely influential, and they can be called masterpieces in their own right; On the other hand, it is also a sort of continuation of the scandal in which the media exposed the Catholicism last year.

Of course, most people still like to do the beating of water dogs.

After the first day of screening, 55 reviews of "Spotlight" were collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website, with a positive rating of 97% and an average score of 8.8 points, and the authoritative media comprehensive evaluation MetaCritic included 45 media scores, with an average score of 8.6 points!

If it's just the media and critics' praise, it's okay, but the film's fan reputation is also explosive.

CinemaScore cinema audiences scored "A+" on the spot, IMDB included 6876 user ratings, and the average score of "Focus" was 9.1.

Ordinary fan users on fan websites and social platforms such as IMDB have received endless praise about "Spotlight".

"Focusing on the sexual assault incident itself is not the focus of the film "Focus", because it is easy to fall into the gimmick of negative energy overload and selling topics, Murphy puts most of his pen and ink on the process of exposing the scandal, and the most rare thing is that this film does not deliberately 'focus' on creating gods. And every character is full and real, so that the audience can empathize and can't help but self-examine, maybe the bigger the screen, the more front row, the more you can feel the charm of the performance and play, which is also a shocking strength that is not available in front of the small screen, and the list of blockbusters played by the final subtitles is quite shocking, so after the end credits, the audience was silent, and after a long time, the applause of the audience was fresh enough! ”

Although the film cannot be as popular with ordinary fans as "Dark City" because of the subject matter, a considerable number of people still give "Focus" a perfect score of 10!

"After watching "Spotlight" in Toronto, I watched it twice more today, and every time I walked out of the cinema, I felt very moved. On the one hand, I was moved by the journalist's unremitting pursuit of the truth and the spirit of self-restraint in the face of the truth, and on the other hand, I was moved by the excitement brought by seeing that the ugliness under the protection of power will finally be exposed. ”

In today's Internet era, although professional film critics still exist and have a certain influence, various social platforms also provide channels for some fans with professional quality to express their opinions.

"Director Murphy Stanton did not pretentiously set up suspense or create gimmicks in the film, nor did he use any of the scars and privacy of the victims of this scandal to attract attention, on the contrary, the confident and low-key narrative approach, and the seamless and superb editing won the respect and unique energy of the film; With a clear backbone close to documentary literature, the whole story is carried in a rich context, and the balance between the performances of multiple characters is well controlled, and multiple factors are intertwined and subtly linked, leading the audience step by step, tirelessly towards the end. ”

"The film is tense and tight-paced, the narrative is calm and complete, and it is commendable that even though Murphy Stanton advocates concise and efficient storytelling this time, he still succeeds in placing the detailed description of each character and the capture of emotions into every detail and every line, showing the supreme grasp of the use of film language and camera implications."

Others set their sights on the entire event reflected in the film.

"Faith is not essentially the worship of a god or a doctrine, but the belief in man and the world; Trust us to overcome our own limitations, to transcend our desires, and to save ourselves and others. To quote Richard Sepp, an internal psychopathologist and one of the witnesses of the Catholic Church in the film: The Church is founded by man, and it will eventually pass with time; And my faith will remain in my heart forever. ”

No matter in the eyes of the audience, "Focus" can't reach the height of "Dark City", but the reputation is also very good, and such a reputation is enough for a film to be screened.

On the second weekend of this November, after three days of screenings over the weekend, "Focus" got a box office of more than $700,000 from North American theaters, and the box office of a single theater reached $70,000!

This success and word-of-demand gave Twentieth Century Fox tremendous confidence, and they decided to change their strategy slightly, starting next weekend with a massive expansion of the theaters in Focus, and quickly reached an agreement with the North American theater alliance to do so.

North American cinema companies are also happy to show Murphy's films, and Murphy's films have been proven to be hugely profitable.

In addition to cooperating with the publicity and public relations of Twentieth Century Fox and CAA, Murphy has also been paying close attention to various latest data of the film, but what he didn't expect was that Bill Rothes brought a somewhat unexpected news just after the start of the new week.