“In The First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”
Release Date: January 12th, 2018
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
MPAA Rating: PG
I’ll get this out of the way before I start this review. This genre of newspaper/post movies are starting to become easily one of my favourite movies to watch, as I get a lot of history told to me in a short period of time (I’m sure some of it is dramatized but thats not going to stop me from enjoying this type of film.
The Post was a movie I knew nothing about, but I heard a lot of word of mouth before and after the Golden Globes (where it was nominated for 6 awards.) You also have an extremely well casted cast of actors and one of the most talented directors of the time who has worked on numerous different films. I didn’t even watch the trailer, I just read the synopsis, and I was in.
The Post is a Biographical, Drama and Historical film about A cover-up that spanned four U.S. presidents pushed the country’s first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between the press and the government.
The Post is directed by Steven Spielberg. If even have a general interest in film, you probably know who Steven Spielberg is, and you’ve probably ended up seeing one of his movies. But for those living under a rock (Jokes), his filmography consists of: Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1999), Minority Report (2002), The Terminal (2004), War Of The Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), and Bridge Of Spies (2015). This movie is Spielberg through and through. You have these really long takes of just Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep chewing the fat, and really complimenting each others acting styles and playing off of each other. You have these weirdly framed shots, where the tension just ramps up and you think something is going to happen. I noticed a lot watching this film that I was on the edge of my seat, even when there was no reason to be, just by how the camera moved and the pacing of the movie kept me questioning and kept me engaged. Its quite impressive to me that this film was made in only 6 months, Well done Mr. Spielberg.
The Post was written by Josh Singer and Liz Hannah. I am not familiar at all with Liz Hannah’s work. But Josh Singer wrote the oscar winning picture Spotlight in 2015. Theres a reason why this film felt oddly familiar but fresh, I had no idea that Singer wrote the script; theres the reason why this film felt so important (which was my exact reaction after seeing Spotlight).
The Post stars Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, Meryl Streep as Kay Graham, and Bob Odenkirk as Ben Bagdikian. Theres a lot of wonderful actors in this movie, but we would be here for a long time if I broke down everyones films on their own.
Tom Hanks’ filmography consists of Big (1988), A League Of Their Own (1992), Sleepless In Seattle (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Toy Story (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), The Green Mile (1999), Cast Away (2000), Road To Perdition (2002), The Terminal (2004), The Polar Express (2004), Toy Story 3 (2010), Captain Philips (2013), Bridge Of Spies (2015), and Sully (2016). Show me a person who claims they don’t like Tom Hanks or don’t think he’s a talented actor and i’ll show you a liar. Everyone loves Tom Hanks, he is an extremely talented and wonderful actor. I’ll watch anything that he is in as I know that I will get a quality role out of him, and seeing him act with this wonderful cast and especially Meryl Streep was something special.
Meryl Streep’s filmography consists of Adaption. (2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Mamma Mia! (2008), and It’s Complicated (2009). This list is only the stuff of Streep’s I’ve seen which really needs to be changed, as this is really sad the amount of movies I’ve seen from this talented actor. She was wonderful in this movie and I thought she played this role very well. Theres a reason she keeps getting nominated for the Best Female Actor in a Leading Role, she’s unbelievably talented.
Bob Odenkirk’s filmography consists of The Cable Guy (1996), Entourage {TV Series} (2004-2011), How I Met Your Mother {TV Series} (2005-2014), Breaking Bad {TV Series} (2008-2013), and {TV Series} (2014). I never really took notice of this actor, I liked him in everything that he has been in, I liked his character in Breaking Bad; theres a reason why that character got a spin-off but I never really noticed him before. But I thought he was excellent in The Post, I thought he played his character extremely well and had some really genuinely witty delivery of some of his lines. I thought it was important to highlight him.
My only gripes against this movie is that it was intensionally slow to build up tension. I feel like this is the way that Spielberg makes his films, theres some drawn out scenes that linger for a bit too long to build up tension and to make the audience dwell a bit longer, just like the characters in the movie have to dwell for a bit longer.
Overall though, I give The Post a 4/5.
I feel like this film will be nominated for quite a few oscars as it is an important film and extremely timely considering this is the era of “Fake News” and everything, but I’m not quite sure if it’ll win any. But this is definitely a film to watch.
Until Next Time!
-Andrew