Posthaste

Spielberg’s latest is a rushed, romanticized hagiography

It’s safe to say Steven Spielberg is a workaholic. With a lifetime of influential films in the rearview mirror, the prolific director, writer, and producer has a pace comparable to those of Ridley Scott or Woody Allen, often releasing two blockbusters in a year. “Jurassic Park” and “Schindler’s List”; “War of The Worlds” and “Munich”; “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse.” His pattern of fantasy and reality walks the line between popcorn and prestige.

During post-production of his upcoming FX-laden adaptation of a book (“Ready Player One”) substantially centered on nostalgia for his pop cultural peak, Spielberg somehow shot and finished “The Post”—because of course he did.

I had no idea.

“The Post” is based on the true story of Daniel Ellsberg, who, while working for the Rand Corporation, discovers evidence of a decades-long cover-up concerning our covert military involvement and escalation—like the bombing in Cambodia—leading up to the Vietnam War.

Ellsberg steals the so-called Pentagon Papers and offers them up to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Their publication sent shockwaves as the country learned that the Johnson administration and the current Nixon cabinet had been lying to Congress and the American public for years.       

The new era of alternative facts, fake news, and a morally (possibly criminally) corrupt presidency compelled Spielberg to fast-track this film into theaters. And that sense of urgency shows—unfortunately, because it’s clear this film needed more time in the oven.

It’s almost hard to believe, with a star-studded cast and an American master behind the camera, that instead of becoming a modern-day “All the President’s Men,” “The Post” winds up being so goddamn boring. Pedantic in its traditionalism and hamstrung by an overly expositional script that feels like a second draft, the vibrancy of Spielberg’s camera is a load-bearing wall in a house of cards.

Largely centered on Washington Post publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) and editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the screenplay is by first-time feature writer Liz Hannah, inexplicably teamed up with the co-writer of the infinitely more compelling and sharp “Spotlight.” Hannah does the production no favors, scripting dull scenes with limp observations of the cozy relationship between news outlets and the politicians they cover, all the while trying way too hard to generate drama around the nobility of journalism.

Hanks and Streep are typically fine, but their being cast feels like a lazy move, doing as much as the half-baked script to take viewers out of the story. While I get his sense of expediency (not to mention superhuman work ethic), if Spielberg really thought the message here was that important, he should have given it the attention it deserves.

Instead, “The Post” feels like a drive-by afterthought.