Spotlight manages the seemingly impossible task of wooing journalists with authenticity while still elevating reporters to hero status, as they battle a formidable and corrupt institution with righteous determination.

Ruffalo gets top billing in the movie, and he brings some wonderfully lived-in behavioral details to his performance -- the quick, terrier-like movements of the head and the bitten-off sentences.

Spotlight giving center stage to unsung warriors for truth who understood telling the story right, without embellishment, without melodramatic editorial excess, was the greatest victory of them all.

'Spotlight' is a classically told investigative thriller featuring confident performances from its able ensemble.