Movie Review: The Post

The Post **** / *****

Directed by: Steven Spielberg.

Written by: Liz Hannah and Josh Singer.

Starring: Meryl Streep (Kay Graham), Tom Hanks (Ben Bradlee), Sarah Paulson (Tony Bradlee), Bob Odenkirk (Ben Bagdikian), Tracy Letts (Fritz Beebe), Bradley Whitford (Arthur Parsons), Bruce Greenwood (Robert McNamara), Matthew Rhys (Daniel Ellsberg), Alison Brie (Lally Graham), Carrie Coon (Meg Greenfield), Jesse Plemons (Roger Clark), David Cross (Howard Simons), Zach Woods (Anthony Essaye), Pat Healy (Phil Geyelin), Michael Stuhlbarg (Abe Rosenthal).

 

The Post is a good example of why Steven Spielberg is arguably the most successful filmmaker in history – he makes everything he does look effortless. The Post is a film that could very well get mired in prestige movie cliché, and there are times when it seems like it’s about to slip down that slope and get there – and every time Spielberg and company pull it out. The movie moves at a brisk pace for not quite two hours, and makes exciting a story that is basically people in rooms talking, based on a true story in which we all already know the result. Yes, the screenplay by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer occasionally strains for contemporary resonance a little too much – the film wants you to think about current President Donald Trump as much as the President at the time in the movie, Richard Nixon, and isn’t overly subtle about it. But it’s all wrapped up in such an entertaining package, you hardly care.

 

The film is about the Pentagon Papers – those Top Secret documents, that Daniel Ellsberg smuggled out to try and get to the public so they could know the truth about the Vietnam War – essentially, that the government knew in 1965 the war was unwinnable, but they kept right on sending troops to fight and die anyway for years, because no one wanted to be at the helm when they had to admit America lost a war. The New York Times started publishing stories based on these papers, and then were barred by a court awaiting final decision. This movie is about The Washington Post – who get their hands on the same papers, after the Times is barred, and has to decide whether or not to publish. Doing so could result in the Washington Post being shut down, and criminal charges for those involved.

 

The movie focuses on two characters. The first Kay Graham (Meryl Streep), the publisher of the Washington Post, who has had to take the job over after her husband’s suicide, and feels tremendous weight to keep the paper her father founded running. The second is Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the now infamous Editor of the Post, whose goal is to publish, to uphold the First Amendment, and keep Nixon’s feet to the fire. Between them is an army of reports and lawyers and advisers, pushing and pulling them in different directions.

 

This is Streep’s best performance in years. I’ve been struck over the years that although Streep is undeniably one of the greatest actresses of all time, she hasn’t always been in great films, or worked with great directors. Part of this is undeniably the sexist nature of Hollywood – the biggest directors are men, who make films about men, so Streep is stuck either being a supporting player to inferior men, or the lead in somewhat lesser films. Part of it is Streep though – she loves to do these larger than life roles – and sometimes that results in her sucking all the air of a film for herself – the movie becomes about the Streep performance more than the film itself. Here, she gives a quieter, more nuanced performance – as a woman who is unsure of herself, in large part, because she is surrounded by men, all of whom think they clearly know better than she does how to run her business. She has to trust her own judgment when nobody else does. She’s a strong woman, no less so because of the vulnerability she brings to the character.

 

Hanks isn’t quite as good as Bradlee – but he’s close. Normally Hanks plays good guys – and Ben Bradlee is one too – although he’s also more of a stubborn asshole than Hanks normally plays (the fact that he’s right doesn’t make him less of an asshole). There aren’t as many notes for Hanks to play as Streep gets – and he doesn’t come close to topping Jason Robards in All the President’s Men in terms of the ultimate Bradlee performance – but it’s more solid work from Hanks, who like his director here, specializes in making things look effortless. The two are supported by a great cast – Bob Odenkirk, David Cross (Mr. Show reunion!), Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon, Matthew Rhys, Jesse Plemons, Bradley Whitford, and on and on – there isn’t a weak performance in the cast. My favorite of these small roles may just be Sarah Paulson – who for much of the film looks like she is not going to get to do anything except be Bradlee’s supportive wife, who gets to make sandwiches when the reports come to her home – and isn’t that a waste to get someone of Paulson’s talent to do that. But then she delivers a short monologue to Bradlee that makes him see Graham in a different light – and really, all women at the time. No, it’s not Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name – but it justifies the casting of the great Paulson.

 

Yes, the movie can feel too on the nose at times – the last few scenes are way too heavy handed, and the few depictions of protests on the streets feel like we’re watching narcs in hippie costumes, not legitimate protests. But The Post is the type of Hollywood movie that no one seems to remember how to make anymore. Spielberg, Streep and Hanks do though – and they pull off a really excellent, entertaining piece of mainstream cinema for adults. That’s one of the rarest things in Hollywood these days.