"The Post" on Our Doorstep
Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 5:00PM 
Chris here. I was just mentioning the other day that we had yet to see any real goods on Steven Spielberg's The Post, and voila: we just got a new trailer and poster. And the promise of the film being a potential major Oscar player has just gotten a whole lot more intense.
If we thought this one aims to capture the zeitgeist, the first look makes good on that and then some. Gender equality, journalistic integrity, a lying government, etc. The Post seems to hammer all of these in a graceful way to make for what looks to be a richly entertaining drama. There has been steady buzz for this first look online (and not just from movie obsessed folk like us at The Film Experience) since dropping late last night, so we may also have a big box office hit on our hands.
So what Oscar questions might have been answered here? For starters, Streep is definitely a lead performance, landing both top billing and the majority of the trailer's attentions - so the Best Actress race just got definitively more crowded. Giggle at the various hairpieces, but it's worth pencilling this next to other Makeup and Hairstyling hopefuls.
Of course with any reveal, there is also inevitably more questions. In The Post's case, which of these featured supporting male actors could be a contender? Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, or Bob Odenkirk perhaps? Might Sarah Paulson's earnestness get her an awaited first nomination or is she more of a crucial bit player? Give us your first impressions and burning questions in the comments!
Reader Comments (64)
But... doesn't it look kinda sorta really bad? Just in comparison to literally any other newspaper movie the trailer looks ugly. But also it reminds me of the tonal issues that Bridge of Spies had. It's all over the place and honestly I'm not excited for it.
Disappointed in this trailer - it comes across as having a screenplay by way of an 8th grade civics textbook: exposition, exposition, exposition, and ever so certain of its own societal importance. Very much hope it's better than that. At least it looks like there's a fun role for Bob Odenkirk.
Thie Post will win best picture, and Meryl may very well win her fourth. It’s such a middle finger to Trump, voters will most certainly want to make a statement.
Odenkirk looks like the BSA player.
I was very underwhelmed by this. The film could be better but Hanks and Streep wore the same expressions throughout and every line was dripping with self-importance. Plus it looks really ugly - Kaminski must be all-in on smoke-filled rooms.
Winner, that's all.
Uninspired paint by the numbers prestige homework movie for those without a personality.
This trailer is too focused on Streep and Hanks, when the real work is being done by the little guys. The dialogue feels cliched and hokey. I hope the movie is good but this trailer is not hopeful.
3rtful hits again.
(Damn, I gave him/her the attention s/he craves so much through making broad insulting statements....)
It seems like an extended version of Spotlight.
I like the poster.
A lot more than the trailer...
It's hard to put my finger on why, but it feels oddly stagey.
Interesting to see so many negative views here already when I've only seen unanimous love otherwise lol
Visually uninspired, it looks like Spielberg hired Eastwood's DP?
It doesn't inspire a lot of passion in me but I quite liked what I saw. More than anything Streep, who for the first in a while seems to be not going overboard with theatrics and the trailer and her work in it all the more effective for it.
My opinions:
- Munich didn't have a great trailer or poster (I love that poster!) but on the screen Steven show us all that amazing mise-en-scène that earn him a well deserved best direction nomination. For the trailer, I think that the same mise-en-scène cuold happen here. I honestly think that Spilberg is hidding the game until the premiere. He is good enough as a director to do something great (see Indiana Jone, E.T., Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can and Lincoln).
- When was the last time we saw Meryl on a 'quiet' performance like that? For quiet read interior performance.
I would say:
When she was with no wig on 'August: Osage County'
Devil Wears Prada
Angels in America
The Hours
The Bridges of Madison County
Go for me: she is hidding the game with Spielberg too. They will probably go for the fourth Oscar easily if I will be corrected.
I love the ensemble. I love ensenble movies.
Yeah, I gotta say, based on this trailer, Spielberg is kind of losing it. Sorry. Eventually, you run out of steam. And I'm not holding out hope for Ready Player One.
It's being released during the holidays in this political climate, of course the tone of the trailer would be rousing, broad and "important." Let's wait until it actually screens.
I think this looks great and I really look forward to seeing it. The casting is irresistible. If it hits with audiences, I think Meryl will get Oscar #4. It's like she is redoing the Hepburn playbook, but on her own terms. Break a leg.
I agree with Jon
1) This will be a rather weak year in the Best Actress realm.
2) Very important disclaimer:
not weak as in: "not enough good performances"
but weak as in "less good enough performances than expected".
3) Therefore, if Streep can sneak in with Florence Foster Jenkins in a high-profile year such as 2016, then she can definitely not just sneak in this year, but they can also hand her the 4th win!
4) Because they're seriously playing the "Female / Hillary Should've won" card.
5) In fact, I'd bet that's why Spielberg and Co pushed so aggressively to have the movie released this year. It'll make huge money, it'll win Oscars. Regardless of the quality of the movie, It's totally in the opposite direction of Fake News. Very Anti-Trump by default. People love hating Trump.
I'm not judging the quality of the film based on the trailer - it's highly unlikely Spielberg had anything to do with the cut himself. But this trailer sucks overall.
It feels like what Spotlight would be if everyone was doing what Ruffalo did, very earnest and unsubtle/overblown. I also agree that it isn’t very nice to look at.
TFE has a bunch of repetitive and negative cranks. This looks good to me.
Whatta snooze.
This looks very self-important, but also could be Catch Me If You Can-style fun *and* educational if Spielberg pulls it off. (I also appreciate that there weren't Oscar-y—i.e. "three-time Academy Award winner" or "two-time Academy Award winner—title cards for Streep and Hanks.) Still, Spotlight was only two years ago and seems so much more scrappy and artful, no?
P.S. I honestly read "...they're seriously playing the 'Female / Hillary Should've won' card" as "...the 'Female / Hilary Swank won' card," which is PTSD.
if spotlight was any indication, the best supporting actor nod will go to the actor who shouts loudest
As far as Sarah Paulson goes, just wanted to point out that she looks to be third billed after Streep and Hanks if you look at the end credits of the trailer. Interesting for her oscar prospects if she does get more screen time than the trailer suggests
YES
Streep and Hanks had better get those Oscar noms!
Paulson seems to be playing only a supportive wife.
The trailer is fine- it looks like a prestige message movie.
thefilmjunkie...
The internet ragging on earnestness is one of the many reasons we're living in such a cynical world. I wish there'd be a moratorium on film critics and others using "earnest" as a pejorative.
I will go see "The Post" and say nice things about it, especially regarding the importance of a free press and journalist investigations.
Privately, I'm a little unconvinced about what appear to be some points of the story. Benjamin Bradlee was such a gorgeous creature, beautiful, smart, charismatic and with nice manners. All kinds of people had intense crushes on him. Tom Hanks has a quite different kind of appeal.
The trailer gives me the impression (erroneous I hope) of Katherine Graham portrayed as a woman lacking the competencies for a role she accidentally acquired, and who has to have everything mansplained to her.
This definitely changes the Oscar race and will be a contender in many categories. This is certainly capturing the zeitgeist of the moment.
Just because most of you don’t want the film to succeed- that does not mean that it will necessarily “fail”. And what is that definition for “fail” exactly?
And Streep is headed for Nomination......21!
As soon as this movie was announced, with that director and those stars, and being released in this political climate, how can you expect it NOT to be earnest?
Having said that, I liked the trailer and will be going to watch this.
Adri- I believe that Katherine Graham’s father started The Washington Post and then when her father died, he left the newspaper not to Katherine but to Katherine’s husband who ran The Post for many years. After her husband commits suicide, she then inherits the newspaper. So... at the beginning of this transition she should seem to be out of her element and will later find her voice as editor and the pentagon papers played a great deal in that.
What is everyone smoking? I think this looks like a classy, sophisticated, grown-up picture. And Streep looks magnificent in this - she seems like she's completely inhabiting Katharine Graham and it's nice to see her giving a more internalized performance than the flashiness of her recent roles like Violet Weston and Florence Foster Jenkins.
As far as supporting, Sarah Paulson and Bob Odenkirk look to have the juiciest roles, and both of them are the next billed after Streep/Hanks.
I'm fascinated by the story and the cast is certainly top notch but the trailer doesn't really pull you in....and what's with the bombastic music! Hope that sort of over emphatic score is only in the preview and not the film.
I love the poster. I think Streep will get a nomination. I hope the film is good.
Poster> >> trailer. Hoping the movie is less traditional/formulaic than what we saw in the trailer. The poster is simple, elegant, and beautiful!
I love it that both their names are larger than the title... and I absolutely love the poster
wow - is anyone ever happy with anything?? LOL
I love Meryl and would love to see her win her fourth Oscar for this. Because then there will be time for a fifth win, and she will beat the record held by YAWN Katharine Hepburn who I have never been a fan of.
I hope Tom Hanks gets a nomination (especially since the abysmal absence of his nomination for Captain Phillips)
Would love to see Spielberg win as he very well should have for Lincoln - and Lincoln should have won best Picture. I mean, please - Argo? Double-yawn.
I liked the trailer and the poster and I would love to live in a city where this played when released in limited availability since by birthday is Dec 22, but I will have to wait until January. So I probably shouldn't read any reviews on here since i'm sure you all who have been totally going against the trailer will probably be the same people going against the movie - since again, many of you just aren't happy with anything.
:)
@Jamie: Thanks, that sounds like an interesting narrative.
oh and Nathaniel - when you move Meryl to your top spot in your predictions :) please move Emma Stone out of your top five and replace with Judi Dench, or anybody else. I can't take another set of nominees that has her name included - especially since she has Isabelle Huppert's Oscar right now.
Meryl looks like she's going to be amazing in this. But the movie itself seems a little soulless.
OT but have you heard that Ridley Scott and Co. are recasting Spacey's character in All the Money in the World with Christopher Plummer...and not only that but will be re-shooting his scenes, re-editing the film, and STILL planning on keeping the Dec. 22nd release date????
These days whenever I see Meryl Streep act.. it always feels like, Hey I'm Meryl Streep ACTING this part!
I'm not a troll, I'm not a hater. I rewatched Kramer vs Kramer recently and what I saw was Joanna Kramer, her creation and it was wonderful. Now it's just Meryl Streep playing Meryl Streep. If that makes any sense?
All the corniness of the trailer cut 'n' music is just typical big studio sales, but the film itself looking ugly? No. Desaturated in much the same way as Munich, Lincoln and Bridge of Spies, yes, because for the most part that's where Spielberg's sensibility has been in latter years with dramatized history dioramas: something colder, perhaps fading from our current conscious into light and shadow. But make no mistake, he and Kaminski are masters at what they do, and this look just as rich in classical deep-focus lensing-and-staging as their previous collaborations. Moreover, Spielberg is not "losing it". He remains in my opinion the best cameraman filmmaker and set-piece storyteller working today, even if the scripts he chooses waver here and there.
My only real hesitation is the potential political slant of the movie. If leftist Hollywood somehow views this story as some kind of allegory for modern journalism's crusade against Trump ...please. A world where today's mainstream media is not utterly partisan towards and cronied-up with the ever-increasing state is a world where unicorns and fairies exist. However, if viewed as an example of a time when the integrity of journalistic independence was still the norm then, yeah, I can get behind this movie.
Yawn.
Tony, well said. Stone ain't getting near the Best Actress lineup this year, and thank God, because she stole Izzie's Oscar (and gave some of the most pseudo-woke speeches during awards season I've ever heard coming from a rich white girl who steals roles from Asian actresses).
Ok. I am now of the belief that SPC did the right thing in moving The Wife to 2018 (even if they did to it for the wrong reason ) This is Streep’s to lose.
The Post :
SAG nominations : Ensemble, Actress, Actor
Golden Globe Nominations : Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Screenplay
Oscar nominations : Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Screenplay, Original Score, Production Design, Editing
That' s all !
So, it's Meryl Streep playing Meryl Streep (as an uncertain 1970s woman transitioning from housewife to newspaper publisher), it's Meryl Streep giving a Ruffalo-style overblown performance (!!!), and it's Meryl Streep never changing her expression.
I think it looks great. I'm happy to see Meryl in a quieter performance, working with a great director.
the way that the trailer sets this up, streep is playing a hero. that is an important part of the calculus here - voters *love* to vote for a hero in an inspirational story.