Saturday, January 20, 2018
A post post the Post
Spotlight (a fab movie on a similar journalistic scoop) and the Post will always be spoken of in the same breath, I suppose. In terms of cinematography, the Post is a more melodramatic, 'Spielbergized' version of Spotlight- more star power (Hanks + Streep is a 1-2 sucker punch), more dramatic camera angles -camera switching often between two scenes- and more music. One of those "two scenes" is classic Spielberg- camera doing different angles and positions of the 'boiler room' of the newspapers- show first the type-setting, then the printing presses, and pan to all the other large machines. Frankly, I felt the boiler room shots were overdone a tad. Spotlight, for example, had none of this. The 'human interest' angle was much more in this movie, definitely- the story of Meryl Streep family, for example. Sounds like me dissing human interest angles, and a vague inner voice criticizes me for doing that.
The Post saw the Supreme Court in its 6-3 ruling, and a united Media (NY Times+Washington Post), come together as one - involved in a show of strength for the 'check and balance' side, in the democracy. Good job, yo, media and jury.
In the US consciousness, this movie probably comes at a good time- the zeitgeist of the press bashing from Trump and the Metoo movement being represented in the movie by the attitude of Nixon towards the press (his sentences on the white house silhouette shots mirror those from a certain famous twitter handle), and Meryl Streep's rise.
It was also interesting for me that the lawyer team of two in the movie stars two actors who I recognize from some of my infrequent dalliances with Sitcoms- Jared from Silicon Valley and Robert Daley from 4*1 Black Mirror 'USS Callister.
Oh and this was the first movie I've gone to a theater watched alone. But, in my social self's defence, the theater was 750 m away from my house and I booked it just an hour in advance, and I did reach out to a large-ish whatsapp group.
The Documentary to Human Melodrama scale below. BBC Planet Earth's 'Life in the Air' is excellent- a documentary on quirky birds. I added 'Human' before melodrama because 'Life in the air' does have melodrama, but not human- only of the avian kind.
The Post saw the Supreme Court in its 6-3 ruling, and a united Media (NY Times+Washington Post), come together as one - involved in a show of strength for the 'check and balance' side, in the democracy. Good job, yo, media and jury.
In the US consciousness, this movie probably comes at a good time- the zeitgeist of the press bashing from Trump and the Metoo movement being represented in the movie by the attitude of Nixon towards the press (his sentences on the white house silhouette shots mirror those from a certain famous twitter handle), and Meryl Streep's rise.
It was also interesting for me that the lawyer team of two in the movie stars two actors who I recognize from some of my infrequent dalliances with Sitcoms- Jared from Silicon Valley and Robert Daley from 4*1 Black Mirror 'USS Callister.
Oh and this was the first movie I've gone to a theater watched alone. But, in my social self's defence, the theater was 750 m away from my house and I booked it just an hour in advance, and I did reach out to a large-ish whatsapp group.
Labels: Cinemas
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