it's kind of like if the movies All the
President's Men and The Iron Lady had a baby
and that movie baby grew up wanting to
be an award circuit juggernaut when it
grew up. That's right, today we're gonna
be talking about the 2017 Meryl Streep/
Tom Hanks tandem vehicle, The Post,
written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
and directed by Steven Spielberg. This is
a biopic rated PG-13 for language and
brief war violence. Some of the weaker
aspects of The Post is gonna come with
the genre. Biopics are a very difficult
genre because, for the most part, the
audience usually already knows how the
movie is going to end, or at least they
have a general idea of the events that
are going to happen. It kind of comes
with the territory of "based on a true
story." So, typically with the biopic, the
movie is going to either teach the
audience something new about something
they're already familiar with or give
them a different perspective on events.
And The Post really didn't do either of
these things. The information presented
felt very basic and watered down and the
characters were pretty flat. The dialogue
was excellent and very well delivered by
both the main characters and the
secondary characters throughout the
movie but pretty much anytime anybody
opens their mouth, it was very clearly
intended to get the audience riled up
based on the similarities between what
was happening then and the way it
relates to what is happening in the
world today. And just the constant
monologue delivery method of comparing
the past to the present
felt extremely heavy-handed and, to me at
least, got old very quickly. Now, to be
fair, there were several points
throughout this movie where the audience
in the theater I was in literally just
erupted in cheers and "you go, girls" and
you name it. And it's not bad to make a
movie about historical events and have it
relate to the present. Movies have been
doing that since at least Battleship
Potemkin in 1925, and to great effect. But
in The Post, the past was related to our
present so blatantly and heavy-handedly
that I find it hard to believe that The
Post is gonna stand the test of time
and I just don't think it's gonna become
solidified in film history. I don't think
it's gonna be memorable. I think in five
or ten years, we're gonna look back on it like, "Oh, yeah, that movie." So, in that regard, as far
as the the biopic tropes and the more
specific genre, I guess, of social
commentary on current events through a
biopic, it would be a much better movie
if it utilized the art of subtlety a
little bit more rather than relying on a
great cast who can deliver these
monologues. And it didn't really have
a call to action to it which I think
also made that heavy-handedness just too
over the top. If there was a very clear
call to action of, you know, here's what
we need to do, here is how we can combat
these issues, you know, I think it would
be a stronger movie but it didn't really
have any of that. A lot of these faults
kind of fall within the writing as well
and I'll talk more about the writing and
some of my issues there in the
Nitty Griddy review. As far as the
strengths of The Post go, I think it
comes as no surprise that the acting, for
sure, is the strong point of this
movie. Both Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks
give amazing performances. I definitely
prefer Tom Hanks performance. I don't
think it's Meryl Streep's strongest
performance. Tom Hanks for sure deserves
some of the credit he's been getting but
Meryl Streep just is pretty much just
playing a Meryl Streep character and I
don't really see her doing anything
different or award worthy and it kind
of irritates me to no end that she just
keeps getting nominated. I mean, she's
crazy talented, we all know it, we get it,
but she's not doing anything new here.
She's not doing anything
phenomenal. It's just a Meryl Streep
performance. So, that's kind of my feeling
there. Some of the secondary characters
were also very strong. We have Alison
Brie in there, we have Sarah Paulson in
there, we have David Cross and Zach Woods.
I did feel that Sarah Paulson in
particular--she gave a very strong
performance but was very underutilized. I
would have liked to see her character
have some more depth and some more
purpose because she's an amazing,
amazing actor and so talented and she
really could have brought something a
lot more to this movie. And I'll talk
more about how she was underutilized,
again, in the Nitty Griddy review. So,
overall, I gave the post a 67.27
which is still gonna be
a solid B in my book because I consider
a 50 to be average. So, there're a few
categories where this movie really stood
out, primarily acting. I know it's
gonna get nominated for more awards than
that. It already has been nominated other
categories for both the Golden Globes
and the Critics Choice. As far as I can
recall, it didn't win anything but even to
get nominated in some of those
categories kind of irks me. I just
don't think it was that good of a movie.
I'm not gonna say don't see it. If you're
a Meryl Streep fan, if you're a Tom
Hanks fan, if you're a Steven Spielberg fan,
you'll probably like this movie and if
you like movies with cultural
significance, this movie is definitely
one to see right now. I definitely think
within, say, five to ten years from now,
this movie is not gonna have that
cultural significance and it's not gonna
have much else to make it memorable. I
definitely don't think it deserves even
a nomination for Best Picture. There's
just been so many good movies this year.
I mean, if you like Meryl Streep, if you
like Tom Hanks, you should probably go
see this movie. If you want to see
it for the cultural significance, I think
that's a reason to go see it. But it's
not the best movie of 2017. It's not
even the most entertaining movie of 2017.
It's just--it was a fine movie, you know? A
well-acted, fine movie. So, yeah. That's
pretty much all I have to say in this
spoiler-free Itty Bitty review of The
Post. Hey, thanks for watching. Let me know
your thoughts in the comments below and
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