Oscar Season: 'The Post' and 'Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri'

We have decided to temporarily suspend our year-by-year viewing of the Oscar winners in order to spend a few weeks going through all the nominees of the 2018 Academy Award for Best Picture. We'll be watching and reviewing two a week, and this week we continued with The Post and Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri. 

The Post

Plot

Two senior newspaper editors, Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) come into possession of documents which prove corrupt governmental things involving the Vietnam War, and debate extensively about whether to publish them. 

Paul says

Slap the name Spielberg on anything and immediately our hopes rise. In recent years he’s moved on from the Christmas afternoon blockbusters of the ‘80s and onto hefty political epics with Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. The latter was a particularly effective depiction of the Berlin Wall and rise of Communism in the ’50s, and from The Post I was expecting something along those lines.

But The Post suffers from similar faults as Darkest Hour (in fact, it’s worse for the sole reason that I fell asleep 3 times in the cinema and merely twice during Darkest Hour) in that it tries to evoke some pretty complex historical and emotional storylines in just 2 hours. Television has repeatedly proven over the last 10 years that a slow-burning 10-episode miniseries is far more absorbing when tackling historical events that fill up multiple Wikipedia articles. Spielberg touches on the importance of journalism when combating corrupt politicians, the struggles that women face in an intimidating male-heavy workplace, the controversies of the Vietnam War, and the moral issues involved in investigative reporting. But the film barely skims the surface of any of these themes for the simple reason that it’s just too short. Spielberg should have taken one angle and rolled with it.

It’s also a blatantly calculated aim at Best Picture. Nasty politicians trying to silence heroic journalists is so anti-Trump and Katharine Graham’s gradual dominance over self-important mansplainers is so anti-Weinstein that it’s almost as if Spielberg is desperate to prove himself as Democrat and feminist enough so that the Academy can’t help but throw votes his way. Me, cynical? Never! But even if this isn’t the case, there are nominees who tackle these themes with much more integrity and sparkle.

Mark: 1 / 10

Doug says

It’s rare to find a Meryl Streep film that disappoints, but boy oh boy does The Post manage it. It’s a shame to find our second historical film of the Oscars season is equally a turkey, but once again we find ourselves facing a shallow and pointless film. Just as Darkest Hour provided an overly sentimental and try-hard ‘inspirational’ vibe, The Post tries to stir up a love of independent media, and craft an entire film around a moment that would ultimately take up about twenty minutes of a better movie. 

The raison d’etre of this film is that Meryl in her 2017 Golden Globes speech talked about the importance of a free media to prevent Trump from winning. It’s also that Oprah said exactly the same thing in her 2018 Golden Globes speech. It’s clearly one of Hollywood’s ‘values’ currently, and so Spielberg has leapt aboard the popularist train and made a film about how important the press is, but made it historical so as to ‘disguise’ the purpose. It doesn’t work.

The main reason for this is that the period of history they’ve picked is dull. They’ve chosen to depict a decision pre-Watergate rather than Watergate itself. And while reviewers and our parents have mentioned All The President’s Men did this, there are already generations of people who’ve never even heard of this film. 

But finally, it’s disappointing because Streep - despite her best efforts - doesn’t get a chance to shine. There’s a hint of it in the scene when Katharine Graham finally gets some gumption and tells her bossy advisors to shut up, and there’s moments - such as when she walks through the crowd of female secretaries, into a room of exclusively male executives - that suggest a better pathway. 

But ultimately, it’s a film that doesn’t know what it’s doing, and suffers accordingly. It’s dull and poorly written, and seems to be tacking on to a current ‘issue’ for purely callous reasons. And even Streep with her glorious talent can’t do much to save that.

Mark: 2/10 

People of Colour (speaking roles only): 2 (2-3 lines each) 

Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri

Plot 

Mildred Hayes’ (Frances McDormand daughter was raped and murdered, but the local Chief of Police (Woody Harrelson) failed to find the killer. Believing they should have done more, Mildred uses three disused billboards to protest the police’s inaction - and the whole town is up in arms about it.

Paul says

This is a marvellous film, not only the best nominee I’ve seen so far, but one of the best I’ve seen in the last few years. 

The brilliance lies in how it surprises you at every turn. I went into this expecting Mildred to become a heroic vigilante who tracks down her daughter’s killer herself, with the police being patronising, racist bureaucrats. But no! As the film progresses, we quickly realise that the Chief of Police is actually quite reasonable and it is Mildred who is behaving with horrific though understandable irrationality. I won’t divulge much else about how the plot develops, but the writing does an outstanding job at setting up the usual Hollywood cliches, and then obliterating them. Mildred enters the film with hard-faced intimidation and casually saying “Bitch, fuck, cunt”, but when she sees a cockroach stuck on its back, she tenderly turns it over; a potentially violent confrontation between Mildred, her ex-husband and their son is suddenly prevented comically by the entrance of the ex-husband’s dim-witted new girlfriend. And big plot points that seem overly hysterical lead to believable character development.

McDormand very much deserves her second Best Actress Oscar for this- she’s the sort of angry working-class woman with an empathetic edge that we’ve all met or even been raised by. But Harrelson and also Sam Rockwell have both been nominated for Best Supporting Actor and they earn every bit of praise this brings. 

I was expecting something far more brutal and politically-charged (Kill Bill as written by Oprah Winfrey) and Three Billboards ticks this box, but it’s also ponderous and philosophical. It’s a film about decent people giving into their animal instincts when angry- and suffering the dire consequences. Powerful stuff!

Mark: 10/10 

Doug says

Phew! After Darkest Hour and The Post, I was ready to assume Hollywood has lost all sense of talent and given up. But with this thoughtful, real film we are given a real treat. 

It’s not what the trailer makes out. While there’s some aggression and some violence, much of the film centres around carefully constructed moments. And for me what is the best thing is the core lesson of it: violence begets violence. And the bravest thing a person can do is to turn away from that 

It’s a core performance from McDormand that holds the thing together. She’s driven by anger from the death of her daughter, and she has decided that she’s fed up of the case being forgotten. So the billboards are purchased with a provocative message. It’s not intending to hurt anyone, just get her daughter’s case back up and into conversation - and get it solved. 

What I particularly loved was writer & director Martin McConagh’s refusal to bend into any false sentimentality (so far a rarity in this year’s nominees). Every decision the characters make feel real and grounded, and there’s some beautiful turns - particularly worth noting Mildred’s ex-husband’s new girlfriend who milks comedy from every beautifully-timed pause. 

My one critique is that I didn’t find myself particularly caring for any of the characters’ outcomes. But the tension doesn’t let up, and one scene - involving someone choosing to forgive and offer orange juice instead of more violence - left me thinking about the bravery and strength that such a thing can take. Well woven storytelling at its best. 

Mark: 9 / 10

People of Colour: 5 (2 significant roles - our best so far. Isn't that terrible?)