There’s no doubt that The Revenant is an impressive film. Shot entirely with natural light, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu put his cast and crew through hell, filming in difficult environments at trying hours and incorporating some extremely long shots. Actors had to wrangle with the environment on top of their characters, especially Leonardo DiCaprio, who gives his most physical performance to date.  Much has already been written about how he ate raw liver for one particular scene, and the Hollywood star and hearthrob deserves credit for committing 100% to a role that lacks any sort of vanity.

But despite the impressive craft that went into the creation of The Revenant, the film itself is a disappointment. If anything, the gorgeous digital cinematography  and painstakingly blocked long-takes of the film feels a bit at odds with its rough, dirty aesthetics.  A similar style was utilized in Birdman, but there the content fit the stylization, with the unblinking cinematography matching the intensity and mounting stress of directing a stage play. Although The Revenant does contain a handful of extremely tense moments, all empowered by the film’s formal choices, the majority of the film exists in the lull between action sequences.

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Spotlight is an understated film. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t have a constantly peaking score begging you to feel, and the actors aren’t trying to steal every scene they’re in. Instead, director Tom McCarthy created a film that shares the same journalistic spirit as its lead characters. For most of its runtime, it feels as impartial as it could possibly be, intent on getting to the bottom of things without manipulating the viewer emotionally. It lets the facts speak for themselves, and keeps us engaged with the thrill of the chase.

Visually, it’s all fairly old-school. It employs lots of wide shots and the takes are typically longer than your average 2015 release. But again, this is very appropriate for the film. Set in 2001, this particular story about the discovery of the Catholic church’s institutional child abuse centers around a method of journalism based on researching, building a story, and not publishing until it’s ready. It’s the kind of vital reporting that used to be the cornerstone of the profession and is sadly disappearing today, with the desire to be the first to break a story on the internet outweighing the need to research and fact-check. The film rarely outright decries the coming pitfall of journalistic integrity, but it does subtly hint that we are watching the end of the era.

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