Every day until the Oscars ceremony we’ll be highlighting a different category or movie here on the LAMB! Here’s a link to all the posts written so far: https://largeassmovieblogs.com/2018/01/the-lamb-devours-the-oscars-2018-roster.html
Today, MovieRob is kicking off our in-depth look at the Oscar nominations with his take on the first of our Best Picture nominees, The Post.
I have always been a huge fan of films depicting investigative reporting and this is another of the best ones to be made.
Like All the Presidents Men (1976), Spotlight (2015), The Insider (1999) and Zodiac (2007), this film depicts a real story of investigative reporting where the characters must choose whether it is better to print the truth or try and help protect a very political policy.
This film does a wonderful job keeping things at a great pace and even for those of the viewers (like me) who knew what would eventually happen, the story still remains gripping and thrilling the entire time.
The cast is spectacular with leads by Tom Hanks (as The Post’s editor) and Meryl Streep (as the new publisher of the paper) that help embody the true personalities of the people they portray.
In addition, the supporting cast is also great with Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys and Alison Brie all giving us great performances that help us see the debate that really occurred about freedom of the Press that asked the question of how much information should the public be aware of when government policy is hidden from view.
I know a lot of people have tried to compare this film to the recent politics of the US, but I think that is just an excuse because this story actually did happen due to Presidential policies of five Chiefs of State who were from both parties.
This film is nominated for Two Oscars: Best Picture and Best Actress for Meryl Streep.
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
This nomination is a no-brainer despite the fact that I personally don’t think it stands out as much as the performance by Tom Hanks (who should have gotten a Best Actor nomination for it, because his character is so much more of a driving force than hers was). Meryl Streep has always been a darling of the Oscars and she has become the most nominated Actor in history with 21 acting nominations over her career.
Best Picture:
It’s actually quite shocking that this film only manages to get one other nomination besides Best Picture and I’m personally a bit confused as to why there is so much backlash against it; this is a film that deals with the issues of Freedom of the Press and the public’s right to be informed and with such a message as to what it truly means to live in an unoppressed country like America.
Director Steven Spielberg is great as keeping the tension high even in such a story like this and is helped by the amazing score by John Williams (a frequent collaborator).
As much as I believe that this is one of the very best films of 2017, it has little chance of prevailing on Oscar night next month and in my eyes at least, this film will be one of the overlooked gems that the members of the Academy for some reason chose to overlook.
This isn’t the first time that such a thing has happened and it won’t be the last either.
The fact remains though, that since it was able to get a nomination for Best Picture (even in the expanded list of up to 10 nominees), it still is a powerful film that brings some great themes to the forefront and should be seen by anyone who loves history since this event was a momentous one for Freedom of the Press nearly Two Centuries after the Founding Fathers chose to make that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Did you like The Post? Should it win Best Picture?