OVP: The Post (2017)

Film: The Post (2017)
Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Carrie Coon
Director: Steven Spielberg
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Picture, Actress-Meryl Streep)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All right, first off I apologize for the tardiness in getting this (or really any) articles out in the past few weeks.  Between a well-needed vacation and a promotion that turned into two jobs for a while, I am now in need of another vacation and basically gave up anything in my life that didn't have to do with work, sleep, or attempting to get to the gym (and decidedly in that order).  However, I'm dog-sitting this morning and work seems like it has hit the end of the tunnel (or at the very least I'm no longer working two jobs), and so I can start getting back to the other things in my life, including TMROJ.  This is obviously a "just in time" situation, as it is now Oscar week, and I have been sitting on a bushel of Oscar-nominated films from this year (including five Best Picture nominees), and as I'm sure you'll all move quickly on from the pictures of 2017 in a matter of days, I needed to get my thoughts out about at least the top prizes.  So, provided I don't get sucked down an occupational vortex again, you'll be getting a review of one of this year's Oscar-nominated films every day until Sunday.  We'll start with that rare film that somehow scored a Best Picture nomination and still managed to be a nominations-disappointment, The Post.

(Spoilers Ahead) The thing that made The Post so ridiculous headed into this year was that it felt like the sort of movie that you'd see on a comedic parody of the Oscars. 3-time Oscar-winner Steven Spielberg directs 2-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks and 3-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep in a film about journalistic integrity in the first year of Donald Trump's presidency?  Biopics, morals, political relevancy...honestly-this was already a nominee before it began.  When it came out and made a lot of money (which it did, even if it was mostly earned under-the-radar), it still felt like it could be a threat, but the love for the film never materialized even if respect for it was there.

That's likely because The Post, while always very handsome, is only skin-deep.  The film is approaching a powerful subject (whether or not The Washington Post and The New York Times had the right to publish The Pentagon Papers), but it feels hollow as we never really get to know the characters surrounding us.  The only person that Spielberg seems to care about is Meryl Streep's Katherine Graham (or perhaps it's just that Tom Hanks, who has been on a role lately in his career, fired a dud with his Ben Bradlee caricature), and Streep feels a bit out-of-her-depth in such a conventional, "straight" role after playing so many characters with quirks and comedic crutches.  Don't get me wrong, Streep is by no means bad (she lands some of the bigger moments like the way she adjusts to a world where she's the "most powerful" person in the room but never gets to behave like it, and I loved her moneyed relationship with onscreen daughter Alison Brie), but after years of Doubt or Into the Woods or Florence Foster Jenkins, she struggles when the script isn't there and she can't be "quirky, relatable, beloved Meryl" but instead has to find her voice in the film.  One of the reasons I've struggled with Big Little Lies casting Streep is that unlike Kidman, Witherspoon, or Dern, Streep hasn't done a work that good (and demanding) in a long while.  She certainly was capable of such things in the past (it's jaw-dropping to watch Streep today where she's somewhat relying upon her "Greatest Actress of All-Time" title in each role) compared to something like Kramer vs. Kramer or Silkwood, where she's spellbinding in a way she really hasn't been since Devil Wears Prada, or perhaps even Bridges of Madison County, but here she feels adrift, hitting a home run as often as she settles for a single.  She's still the best part of the movie, but this is not a master class in filmmaking, and honestly it'd have been fine if this was one of those rare years Meryl got snubbed by the Oscars.

That said, this should be no person's idea of a bad movie, and it isn't.  The film pops along, and Spielberg is so good at set-up and intrigue that you occasionally forget that you're watching a movie you know the ending to, with Graham's ultimate decision to print the papers seemingly up-in-the-air until she says the word.  The film has a fine supporting cast, and while they are given nearly nothing to do, they're all too talented not to at least occasionally shine (I love, love, loved Jessie Mueller as Judith Martin, my favorite journalistic nod of the movie).  The last twenty minutes (and in particular the last 90 seconds) nearly ruin the picture (Spielberg's ability to end a movie has completely been destroyed since his AI/Minority Report double whammy), but it's still fun.  It's just not one of the nine Best Pictures of the year...not even close.