The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here in slightly altered form...
If you take film critics, Rotten Tomatoes, or any review aggregate site seriously you might think that future Oscar contender The Post (86%) is a pricey gift from Santa Spielberg that’s come exquisitely wrapped for Christmas. You might also believe that the new Hugh Jackman musical The Greatest Showman (51%) is an oversized lump of coal fouling up your otherwise pretty stocking. Don’t fall for that anti-fun / theme=worth messaging; See both for a well-rounded holiday week at the movies...
Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel reunite to talk about the Oscar season as the floodgates open - Globe & SAG noms are about to hit! There are absolutely no spoilers in this so listen away.
Index (43 minutes) 00:01 Introductions & The Greatest Showman 02:11 Lady Bird's prospects 04:15 SAG ensemble possibilities 11:00 Girls Trip & Comedy Globe 16:00 Best Director -- easy or tough call? 21:00 Three Billboards, Darkest Hour, Screenplay race 30:00 Phantom Thread, The Post, Murder on the Orient Express, Visual and Sound categories 38:30 Roman Israel Esq 41:00 Colin Farrell & Goodbyes
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
The National Board of Review, which regularly has a recency bias in their awardage has gone full tilt boogie into stanning for The Post, with a couple of honors for Phantom Thread, too,which were both most definitely among the very last things to screen. Neither opens until the tail end of the year. They gave The Post their top prize and both lead acting awards for the film's iconic stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. That's unusual for NBR. The complete list of winners and commentary after the jump...
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!
Chris here. Luckily this year only has a few late-breaking Oscar hopefuls, with the highest profile being Steven Spielberg's The Post. The film has been another snappy production for the director after beginning production earlier this year, a strategy that worked out just fine for the director with Munich. The rush carries an added weight this time as the film details the release and fallout of the Pentagon Papers, a subject of great topicality in our current administration. Add in the first cinematic pairing of Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep (not to mention an ever expanding cast) and you've got a can't-miss assemblage.
We will hopefully see a trailer any day now since its Christmas Day limited release date is getting closer. For now, we have this first image of the newsroom and its various hairpieces to ponder over. Or in the case of Carrie Coon's beehive, to worship over. So let's do an old-fashioned Tag Yourself - I'm Tony-winning Jessie Mueller peeking out behind some white guy. Tag yourself in the comments!
Wednesday, December 27, 2017 at 10:30AM 
