Anders wrote:«In an online interview, Hannah said that her script is primarily a character study of Katharine Graham.
The Post, Hannah told Asmara Bhattacharya of the website Final Draft—which describes itself as a “Cast & Crew Entertainment Company”—“is not a whistleblower film. It is not about, necessarily, the Pentagon Papers. It’s about this woman [Graham] and how this event ended up being what changed her.”
“’She was a woman who had a voice,’ marvels Hannah, her voice lighting up whenever she speaks of Graham. ‘She stepped up and became the kind of person she would be for the rest of her life.’”
tragabigzanda wrote:Yes, and we’re supposed to care because Trump! And her “stepping up” is not depicted as a bold choice of integrity, but as of someone who simply follows the precedent of both her editor and a rival newspaper.
She died in 2001. RIP
Jorge wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:I’d also argue that the biggest failure of the post is that it’s mostly told through expository dialogue, and the point of entry for emotional engagement seems to be the veiled context of the Trump era. When it came out it felt like everyone was falling over themselves to say “See?! It’s JUST like what we’re going through now, the oress HAS to cover Trump!” Which as a political worldview makes a lot of sense to me. But as a movie, it felt like people were willing to ignore the fact that Katharine Graham is not a terribly sympathetic character, and Bradlee’s overtures on behalf of 1A are super on the nose and it’s frustrating to watch her character just kind of go along for the ride.
I just found the thing to be incredibly formulaic. And they’re trying to cover like 40 years of scandal by having characters deliver expository dialogue. This is not good movie making!
I think "the Power of the Press" movies can be pretty eyerolly at this point, but most of those complaints don't resonate with me at all. I don't care what characters are sympathetic (might better that they aren't), and I am stumped trying to think of how a movie like this could've been told if not through exposition. This is a really elegantly made film, with some typically gorgeous Spielberg/Kamiński blocking and composition, featuring great actors delivering great performances. It is Award Season fluff, but really, really high-quality. Gimme it.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 12:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 12:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
well, of course the movie was oscar bait but who cares if its well made? I loved Spielberg´s framing on this one. There was a behind the scenes that showed how meticulous in his design.
I started watching The Getaway last night, but my brother came over so I had to shut it off. I'll probably start it over tonight as I did not get far into it.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau‘s best role. Really enjoyed this one.
«A newly released prisoner is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.»
I hate that movie with everything in me. Really horrible music, generic and characterless filmmaking, and pretty morally repugnant in terms of its depiction of PT Barnum as a noble, admirable hero
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
