movie review of Spotlight, by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer

Spotlight, 2015. written by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer.

Directed by: Tom McCarthy

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci.

Running time: 129 minutes

http://www.spotlightmovietheaters.com/

https://twitter.com/SpotlightMovie


Spotlight follows the Boston Globe journalists who broke the story about the Roman Catholic priests who were raping and molesting children and the complicity of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy in covering it up. By their actions, the priests deserve to be called sex offenders and to be imprisoned. This is not what happened.

The movie is authentic. The emotions portrayed by the journalists as they are investigating the story are wrenching. I knew these things because I knew some members of SNAP in a nearby city but watching the story re-created drove home the sheer horror of it all.

sapphoq reviews says: The problem with clerical abuse of children and teens was and remains widespread. I have zero confidence in what any authority from the Roman Catholic Church claims about a willingness to be transparent, removal of offending priests from parishes, or an idea that the victims and survivors of said abuse are more important than (R.C.) Church reputation. 

Part of the reason why I think this is because of Rwanda [http://radicalsapphoq.blogspot.com/2011/12/to-vatican.html] and the great cover up there, including the reassigning of one very guilty priest to a new parish in Florence, Italy and a new name to go along with his new parish. His name, that is. He is currently in prison for life for genocide, no thanks to the Vatican. The other part of the reason why I think this is because I've watched the process unfold, including the piteous awards given to survivors and how hard the locals fought to not have the priests held accountable in a court of law.

     I have known two Roman Catholic priests on a casual basis, including during the time when the scandal broke in 2002. One of them was a pedophile who was living in a nearby priest "retreat" house. At least he was then unassigned to a parish with ready-made child victims. What kind of treatment he was getting, if any, was not something that he shared. In fact, he did not share with us that he was an offender. The other one was not an offender. He would get horribly upset about "the poor priests" being accused of these wretched crimes whenever it was brought up. He would become so upset that any rational conversation was difficult. He uttered not a word about the victims.

Go see Spotlight. Highly recommended. 

Enduring Shame by Anonymous

Enduring Shame: A Sex Offender's Journey Through America's Legal System, [by] Anonymous.  self-published, 2013. e-book,  130 pps.

[N.B. Craig's List, FaceBook, Twitter are all companies which own and operate advertisements on line and/or social media. No infringement of their trademarks, registrations, or copyrights is intended. This is a book review. The author of the book being reviewed mentioned these three services so I did also. None of the companies approve of this book review in any fashion. Copy trolls are not welcome in the space of this blog.  ~ sap]

     The author of this book was diagnosed as having Asperger's. He admitted in Enduring Shame to be somewhat obsessed with having sexual chats with adult women on-line. This sort of thing put the fascination on him. He decided to run an ad on Craig's List to have sexual chats with "younger women" online. Someone responded to his ad. She claimed to be a fourteen year old female. Since there were no other non-spam type responses, Anonymous Author sent her some pictures of the x-rated variety.

     The author arranged to meet the girl in a park. He says that he did not bring a condom. He changed his mind about meeting her and he was arrested. He stated in the book that he had turned his car around and was proceeding away from the park when he was pulled over and arrested.

     The man received legal consequences for his actions in accordance with the laws of his state. The man appeared in his writing not to understand that he should not have corresponded with someone who was not a legal adult in the first place-- never mind sending her dirty pictures through e-mail. His excuse that he wanted to "break up with her" or terminate the [budding?] relationship that day in the park I consider to be fecal bovine matter.

     The professionals described in Enduring Shame were portrayed as mean and petty. That a shrink would remark to a secretary that he wants to 'retard proof' something is horrid. On the other hand, I found the sending of porno pictures through e-mail (especially to someone who plainly claimed that she was not an adult) to be reprehensible.

     That the adolescent turned out to be a police officer does not lessen the crimes that Anonymous Author committed. The author was not falsely accused of something. He was guilty of criminal actions from the moment he e-mailed the cop who was pretending to be fourteen.

     I can understand why the author was legally barred from both FaceBook and Twitter. There are those that want to sexually assault teens on both sites as well as teens themselves. The author did not have sex with teens, but sex crimes-- like other criminal behavior-- can escalate over time. By providing legal supervision to the author in the community, it is hoped that his likelihood of sending sexually explicit photos or raunchy e-mails to teens will lessen to zero. It is highly likely in my opinion that the arrest of Anonymous Author prevented his committing any future crimes against teens.

sapphoq reviews says: The writing itself was adequate. The book has some small value in demonstrating the excuses that sex offenders use to justify their criminal actions. Here is a short list of excuses used by sex offenders:

1. I didn't do it, I wasn't going to do it, or I did do it but I could not help myself or I didn't know that the mark was under-aged.

2. It doesn't really count because the "young female" or "young male" was actually a cop. Since no real teens were involved, what I did, wanted to do, or was going to do shouldn't matter. Besides that, I was entrapped. I never would have taken any of the actions that I took if the cop or decoy didn't approach me first.

3. I don't understand what the big deal is anyways. Teens are horny and are waiting in line to have sex with creeps like me.

4. I have a psychiatric diagnosis, psychological problems, a disability or something that ought to excuse me from taking any responsibility for my actions. Or, I am in therapy for this and the therapy isn't working yet.

5. I was meeting with the teen in order to 'mentor' him or her and explain why teens should not engage in conversations about sexual matters with scumbags like me.

Now that I've given you this partial list, you don't have to waste your time reading this book.

The Anti-Therapist by Keaton Albertson

The Anti-Therapist: Interrogations and Interventions with Sex Offenders, Keaton Albertson.  Self-Published e-book, Keaton Albertson, 2012.  528 pps.

In researching the troubled teen industry, I became curious as to whether or not some sects of the [fundamentalist variety; that is to say the fringe polygamist sects] Latter Day Saints had the underpinnings of an abuse culture.  I came across several e-books by Keaton Alberton.  Keaton Albertson grew up in a Mormon household but departed from that faith as he rocketed into adulthood.  The Keaton Alberton books had nothing to do with the question of abuse culture or the troubled teen industry.  Samples convinced me to read them anyways.  So here is the first one that I've read.

As a young man, Keaton Albertson got a job as a treatment facilitator.  He had to interview various predators who were locked up for treatment as part of their sentences for their various disgusting crimes.  Their crimes were truly disgusting.  And so were some of their behaviors on their living units.  Keaton's clientele included folks who did things with their grandchildren, with barn animals, with shit, and with anything filthy imaginable.  They were required to disclose a full sexual history.  Their perversions were worse than anything that I've seen on television.  And these guys saw nothing wrong with things like trying to get a horse to administer oral sex [FAIL], beating on a Staffordshire terrier and then trying to get it to give them oral sex [FAIL], masturbating with feces in public toilet stalls that were vacated by little girls [FAIL], stealing underwear from a garage sale [FAIL], ejaculating into a hole they secretly created in their neighbor's kid's teddy bear and then leaving it on the pillow uncleaned to fester when the neighbors weren't at home [FAIL].  In spite of the subject matter, I laughed uproariously at Keaton's descriptions of each interview and situation that he ran into.  I don't think I will quite forget for a long time the likes of a dude who left little piles of constipated shit in the communal shower stall at the treatment facility or the guy who stole hot sauce from the cafeteria to use as a lubricant during his special moments with his penis and testicles.  Keaton's story-telling ability shone throughout the book.  The truly frightening thing about this book is that the guys that he described really do exist.  And until they get caught, they are out in public doing things or possibly next door having pool parties and mowing the lawn.  

Keaton also recounted his escapades with a couple of buddies from work after-hours.  And a new boss that he named Assclown who certainly resembled his moniker.

A friend of mine from high school used to hang out quite a bit at her apartment.  Her mother was a stout Irish woman who used to tell us all of the time that "Truth is stranger than fiction."  [She also told us more than once that we stank like a brewery when we descended upon the apartment after a drinking spree in college].  To which I can say, "Yeah.  Truth certainly is."  The Anti-Therapist is a perfect illustration of that motto.

I never really cared for my snooty neighbors-- the ones with the pool parties and mowed lawn-- but now I am leery of them as well. It's far too easy to picture them doing all kinds of really demented sexual stuff while putting on a good front around town.  Just makes me want to go live in a cave very far away from anyone and anywhere.

sapphoq reviews says:  If you object to sexual topics or cursing, then don't read this book.  But if you are able to deal with f-bombs and weird things you've never thought about, then The Anti-Therapist is a winner.  It helps if you've read enough John Douglas or have a decent background in anything related to true crime or perps and how they pick their targets.  Keaton Albertson is a winner of a writer.  I'm looking forward to reading more of his books.  Highly recommended.