The Post

Steven Speilberg hasn’t wowed me in quite some time so I was hoping for something more from this effort. His latter films have produced great performances but not really the wholly engaging films that I seek. I also think Ready Player One looks fairly atrocious, so I was hoping The Post would at least be good. After viewing the film, I will say that I enjoyed this quite a bit. In a similar vein to Zodiac and Spotlight the film is  areally smart craft (although not as thrilling).

The film is about the real life leaking of the Pentagon Papers, which detail the United States’ involvement in Vietnam even prior to the Vietnam War. At the time the Washington Post is a small scale paper that gets a hold of the story and decides whether to leak the involvement or suffer the same fate of the New York Times who had their freedom of press threatened by then president Richard Nixon. Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Steven Speilberg surprisingly all work together for the very first time.

The film is detailed and there are little intricacies within the plot that you can miss if your attention wanders. The film actually has many talented performers which is nice to see. Everyone here is good. Tom Hanks (the nice cool uncle you always wish you had) is typically good, same with Streep. I’m quite a fan of politically based drama’s if they are done with attention, style, and substance. I feel like The Post brings that after a lukewarm start.

The film doesn’t have the same knife edge tension like Zodiac, however there is strength in the script and delivery. Its intentional that this film is easily comparable to what is going on today and Trump’s war on “fake news”. I’m happy to say this is Speilberg’s best film in a long time. Stay tuned at the end for a chilling reference to the Watergate scandal. And with that my pre-Oscar viewing extravaganza comes to a close. Good year in film.

7.5/10