Review of The Post (2017) by Danny L — 15 Jan 2018

A shocking disappointment provided by Spielberg who, through past efforts, has proven to be one of the most masterful living directors. This new creation is a sleeping pill, a verbose painful blabfest, and the key actors, from Hanks to Streep, merely phone in their dull and mediocre performances. If they continue down this path, they both should seriously consider early retirements to spare audiences any further cinematic exercise in masochism.

The most difficult aspect of the soporific film is that it seems to worship a newspaper that, today, has transmogrified into a mere propaganda vehicle for its owner, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and any semblance of journalistic neutrality or integrity was erased some time ago. Essentially, the Post does not merit any praise today, it is a mere shadow of what it once was, and therein lies the key problem with the entire film...it is near impossible to feel any admiration today for a faded memory, given that the Post now happens to be the very antithesis of good journalism. In its incessant promotion of politically correct fascism, identity politics, minority victimhood, historical revisionism, and neo-McCarthyism, The Post has become nothing more than a mass brainwash machine today for everything that undermines the vaunted USA melting pot. Worse yet, The Post serves as a key media shill on behalf of corporatism, forever preaching the virtues of Atheism, moral relativism, consumerism, conspicuous consumption, hedonism, narcissism, and a vacuous Cult of Celebrity. Tragically, Spielberg seems either oblivious or deluded to what The Post has become, and in paying homage to what it once was, he fails to see how his film comes off more as parody than tribute. During the screening that I attended, at various points, the film received howls of mocking, derisive, laughter during lines that were intended to be serious and heartfelt; the disrespectful outbursts were inspired by the earnest intent of "the message" that seems patently ridiculous to a contemporary audience very well aware of how far The Post has fallen.

Most of the Big Media film critics at R-T have praised this didactic movie because they are professional narcissists, in love with the myth that sees themselves and the entire Fourth Estate as neutral guardians of the public trust when, in reality, the Big Media have devolved into key perpetrators of mass paranoia, an alarming pandemic that sees nothing but vested interests and bias behind every news source today. The film is simply a preposterous fairy tale that still imagines the existence of journalistic heroes where all evidence suggests they no longer exist. In fact, most of the public views journalism today as little more than a dutiful, venal, proxy acting in service of oppressive monopolies, powerful lobbyists, and mercenary politicos. I never thought I would say this about a Spielberg film but it is lacking on so many levels that you should warn relatives and friends to avoid it like the plague, it is really that bad.