Spotlight: gripping journalism procedural is Oscar favourite

Spotlight, the movie about the Boston Globe's investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church, has nudged into first place to become the bookies' favourite for the Oscars after winning a US critics' award.

The drama, with an all-star cast including Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, has been considered a contender for best picture at February's Academy Awards for some time. Now it has been named the best picture of 2015 by the US National Society of Film Critics.

Directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy, who co-wrote 2009's Oscar-nominated animation Up, the film chronicles the true story of the Boston Globe newspaper "Spotlight" team's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into widespread child abuse in the city.

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The story kicks off in 2001, when new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) takes an interest in a small story about a paedophile priest. He prompts the initially reluctant Spotlight team to chase the story and the level of abuse and cover-up in the church shocks them.

The film, released in the UK on 29 January, has received rave reviews.

Justin Chang in Variety calls it "superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed". He adds it is a "measured and meticulous ensemble drama" in the mould of "slow-building, quietly gripping journalistic procedurals" such as All the President's Men and Zodiac.

The New York Times's A O Scott calls the film "a gripping detective story and a superlative newsroom drama" that "tries to confront evil without sensationalism". The outcome of the story may be well known, says the reviewer, but the film generates plenty of suspense along the way and "the idiosyncratic humanity of the reporters keeps the audience engaged and aware of the stakes".

In the Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin praises Spotlight's "forensic look" at its subject, saying it is "as unshowy as it is gripping". The film offers "no tidy moral to take away", but instead your "skin's left prickling by its deft deconstruction of the business of secret-keeping" and "its perceptive setting out of the courage and diligence it takes to overturn it".

But while Spotlight's win has confirmed its status as the bookmaker's Oscar favourite, it's not a certainty. The BBC points out that the National Society of Film Critics has only agreed with the Academy on the best picture winner five times in the last 40 years.

Spotlight joins The Revenant, Carol, The Martian and Room in the bookies' choices for best picture.

The nominations are announced next week. We will have to wait until 28 February to discover the winner.