Tom McCarthy, the writer and director of Spotlight, joins Brian this week to talk about his new film which tells the true story of how a Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe team unmasked the widespread cover-up of child abuse in Boston’s Catholic Church. Tom has written and directed a number of other great films including The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Win Win. Today, the two talk about how Tom bounced back from a critical and commercial failure in his 2014 movie, The Cobbler, to create what is now being regarded, in Spotlight, as a frontrunner for this year’s best picture. Plus, Tom talks about his career as an actor, the role of journalism in today’s society, and how some of our most calamitous mistakes aren’t the result of one big bad decision, but of a lot of small mistakes, winks, and people looking the other way.

 

Spotlight opens in select theaters on November 6th.

 

Topics mentioned on today’s show include:

Spotlight

The Station Agent

The Visitor

The Wire

Up

The Boston Globe

The Cobbler

Rounders

Empire

Win Win

Evita

Noises Off

Boston College

Star Wars

Harold and Maude

Repo Man

Soul Asylum

The Replacements

The Jayhawks

The Guthrie Theater

The Front Page

Yale Drama School

Axis Theatre

Almost Famous

Jesus Son

Ray Donovan

"Calling Out Bill Cosby's Media Enablers, Including Myself" by David Carr

"What Do We Really Know About Osama Bin Laden’s Death?" by Jonathan Mahler

"There’s Just One Problem with Those Bin Laden Conspiracy Theories" by Mark Bowden

All The President’s Men

The Insider

Billions

 

People mentioned on today's show:

Tom McCarthy

Tom McArdle

Tony Gilroy

Adam Sandler

Danny Strong

Jon Hamm

Peter Dinklage

Bobby Cannavale

Patricia Clarkson

Patti LuPone

Hal Ashby

Amy Poehler

Dave Pirner

Marc Perlman

Doug Hughes

Dalton Trumbo

Anton Chekhov

Jean-Pierre Melville

Francois Truffaut

Sultan Kosen

Ethan Hawke

James Bundy

Richard Jenkins

Michael Keaton

Liev Schreiber

Rachel McAdams

John Slattery

Mark Ruffalo

Stanley Tucci

Billy Crudup

Paul Gilfoy

Eileen McNamara

Paul Giamatti

 

This episode of The Moment is brought to you by Braintree. Looking to set up payments for your business? Braintree gives your app or website a payment solution that accepts just about every payment method with one simple integration. Plus, we’ll give you your first $50,000 in transactions fee-­free. To learn more, visit BraintreePayments.com/Moment.

 

And by The Message, a new podcast series from GE Podcast Theater.

 

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