When the Truth hurts

TWO journalism-themed thrillers in quick succession isn't exactly crowding the field in this particular sub-genre, but serious fact-based procedurals about journalists in search of the truth and nothing but the truth was always going to be about quality rather than quantity.

Truth arrives after Spotlight bagged Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards a couple of weeks ago and almost inevitably suffers by comparison - but that's no real disgrace given the exceptional quality of Tom McCarthy's film about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and how the Catholic Church tried to cover it up.

Truth, written and directed by James Vanderbilt, depicts in fairly straightforward docudrama style the events surrounding a 60 Minutes CBS TV news programme in September 2004 about President George W Bush's military service - or purported lack of it - during the Vietnam War in the 1970s.