Review of The Post (2017) by Jacoobi456 — 20 Jan 2018

The Post tells the story of how the American press faced the dilemma of whether or not to publish the Pentagon papers, containing information about the Vietnam War that was withheld from the public. I thought this film was incredibly well acted, and as always Tom Hanks was excellent in this role.

He really sold you his character, and brought a sense of realism to this amazing story. For a film where almost nothing action-happens save for the intro, the script was very well written and tied up all loose ends by the film's end.

Meryl Streep played the owner of the Washington Post, and really portrayed the sense of naivety and shyness her character has at the beginning of the story (as a new businesswoman thrown into the deep end very well due to catastrophic circumstances) very well, and throughout the film you could really see her changing and adapting to the times, so by the end of the story she is an assured, sure-footed woman who knows what's best for her and her company, and this was a very satisfying arc and storyline.

This film is extremely prevalent in today's society, as it explores themes of woman empowerment and the obvious political situation of 'fake news' and whatnot, and I think Spielberg struck the perfect balance between subtlety and over-doing it, as if one wanted to watch this casually as a film when bored, these serious themes wouldn't jump out at you and take your full attention.

Speaking of Spielberg, he has yet again brilliantly helmed this movie, mixing longer takes with shorter ones and never keeping you bored, however I admit the second half of the movie picks up significantly and is much more involving and riveting than the first, although a film with this much backstory and context is bound to have necessary exposition and introduction.

Overall, definitely see this movie, definitely for the story and then for potentially Oscar-nom worthy performances of Streep and Hanks (oh, and Bob Odenkirk was great too.