In any ensemble, Mark Ruffalo is still standing out

Whether running in a pack of superheroes, wrestlers or journalists, Ruffalo has a rare ability to slide seamlessly into an ensemble while nevertheless standing out for his talent in doing so.

A year after Ruffalo received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance as Olympic wrestler David Schutlz in "Foxcatcher," the actor is again expected to be Oscar nominated for his key role as a dogged Boston Globe reporter in the newspaper procedural "Spotlight."

Ruffalo, one of the movie industry's most outspoken advocates for environmental (and other) causes, rarely turns down a conversation.

(He began a recent interview eagerly imploring a reporter: "Talk to me!") He has regularly poured his considerable energy into both political activism (most notably hydraulic fracturing) and passionate, striving characters, from the bipolar but exuberant father of "Infinitely Polar Bear" to his redemption-seeking music executive in "Begin Again."

The film, directed by Tom McCarthy, is about the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting by the Boston Globe's team of investigative reporters — named Spotlight — that uncovered the widespread sex abuse of Catholic Church priests and subsequent efforts to cover up abuse cases.

The cast, including Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams and Stanley Tucci, is uniformly excellent.

[...] the film, one of the year's most acclaimed, has been hailed for its verisimilitude in depicting the step-by-step digging of investigative journalism.

Ruffalo, of course, is continuing his duties as a member (Bruce Banner/The Hulk) of the "The Avengers," the last of which was the summer's box-office behemoth "Age of Ultron."