Spotlight (2015)

Mitchell Garabedian: If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.

Fiction is really preferable to reality. Yet, sobering truths, without question, are substantively important. Fantasy is a sugar. The truth is more like durian.

I bring this up because, I think everyone should see Spotlight. It is very very important, in the way that vegetables, vitamins, and sunlight are good for us. Spotlight speaks with an authenticity seldom approached in "non-fiction" and was written/performed in such a way as to be more true tale of journalism than hero journey concocted from a true story.  My hats off to everyone involved for handling a tale of Church child sex abuse with dexterity, openness, and dare I say truth.

4.12 out of 5 stars.

Post viewing, my thoughts went in a design direction. Spotlight took in about $90M overall and $50M of that was after it won best picture like 90% of it domestic USA. I do not believe awards or financial returns are our best measures of quality as it comes to art, but I can say that a middling grade marvel movie, let's say Ant-Man, did $520M in returns. Assuming ticket prices are the same, 6 people saw Ant-Man, an admittedly charming movie, for every 1 person that saw Spotlight. (If adjust for just domestic USA I get more of a 1:1.8 ratio) Why the edge to Ant-Man? There is no question that Spotlight was a more important film in terms of learning, empathy, knowledge of the world, history, legal process, journalism, integrity, etc. So why are so many people opting for fantasy?

In my own fantasy world, there would be equal audiences for butterfly documentaries and Ken Burns mini-series as Infinity Wars, but I know that is not the case. People just don't choose to spend their dollars and time to eat their vegetables as they do on sugar. Movies are an escape.

What can be done to increase the audience for socially important but not sugary movies?  Comment with your thoughts. I've bulleted out some of my early ideas for a solution.  (You can also comment if you disagree that the disparity in market size for documentaries, histories, journalism films, is a problem.)

• Lie in the trailers ( and just trick some people into thinking there will be explosions)
• Bundle go to 4 films for the price of 3 in certain categories. 
• Latch on to success -What if every Blockbuster had to be a double feature? Like when Totoro came out with Grave of the Fireflies....only in this case it would Dr. Strange 2 and a documentary on the Ainu. 
• We could design subsidies to make certain film prices cheaper for the consumer. You can see 1 fiction film or 2 histories at the same price. (same revenue to the theaters or movie houses)
• Take a cue from Bollywood and include dance numbers in everything whether they need it or not. -this might compromise integrity....but...spitballin.