The Post (2017)

I'm not always a fan of Steven Spielberg's attempts at serious filmmaking. Certainly he has his successes (Schindler's List being the obvious example), but there are a number of films that I've struggled to watch (still haven't made it past the first ten minutes of Lincoln).

The Post had every chance of being a well-intentioned, but ultimately dull failure, thrown together in a hurry to act as a cinematic reproach to the tactics of the current White House.

It's not.

Aside from being a timely reminder of the importance (and fragility) of the concept of Freedom of the Press, The Post is also a stunning piece of collaborative filmmaking.

It looks and sounds like an artifact from the 1970s. The colour grading, camera movements, and editing give the appearance (for the most part) of something contemporary with All the President's Men (in a restored condition). The score by John Williams is also in keeping with the sounds of that decade.

There's also an authenticity to the recreation of newspaper publishing in the 1970s. Having toured a newspaper (The Guardian) in the early '80s, I was pleased to see that The Post managed to show us almost everything that was covered during that tour (although it missed explaining stereotypes - so marks off for that one). 

The quality of the acting is also superb, and again would not feel out of place in a '70s political-thriller. Meryl Streep's portrayal of Katharine Graham and her character's growth throughout the film is a note-perfect performance, and Tom Hanks manages to merge into his character in a way that you forget he's Tom Hanks. The rest of the cast are no slouches in their roles either.

There's at least one misstep in the film though where the characters have a discussion about the importance of the press that's a bit too on-the-nose explaining why the sometimes-wrong-press is still vitally important, but those issues are minor. For the most part the script and the storytelling are spot on.