Spotlight Director: Catholic Church Hasn't Done Enough to Protect — SkimNews
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- Tom McCarthy told Variety at the New York Film Festival that the Catholic Church hasn't done "enough" to protect children from sexual assault, 10 years after "Spotlight" won Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards: "It's not enough until every child is safe."
- "Spotlight" chronicled the Boston Globe's investigation into the church's systemic cover-up of priest abuse, starring Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Ruffalo.
- McCarthy premiered his new film "A Statement" at NYFF, starring Paul Rudd and following 20 experts at a real 1980 climate conference in St. Petersburg, Florida — billed in the film's opening text as "the first meeting dedicated to solving the climate crisis in America."
- The 1980 climate conference depicted in "A Statement" failed to reach consensus, with the gathering taking place just four days before Ronald Reagan won the presidency.
- Nathaniel Rich, author of "Losing Earth," called "A Statement" "the first climate change movie written for adults" at the festival and praised it for being "not bombastic."
- Tom Cruise's "Digger" bombed at the box office the same weekend, panned by Owen Gleiberman as "the 'Dr. Strangelove' of climate change" and a "bombastically self-important satire."
- 21 states sued the Trump administration Thursday over its repeal of federal greenhouse gas regulations for power plants, with a Democratic-led coalition arguing the rollback will set the country back decades.
Why it matters: McCarthy's "not enough" verdict — issued 10 years after "Spotlight" and nearly 45 years after the 1980 climate summit — frames cultural visibility without institutional accountability as a recurring failure. For abuse survivors and the 21 states now suing over power-plant emissions rollbacks, the director's zero-sum standard means visible outcomes, not just conversation, remain the unfinished business.
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