The Post

After a three-year break following Lincoln, Steven Spielberg has cranked out three mature and understated genre films in three years, culminating with his latest release, The Post. The BFG was an undervalued children’s fantasy, but spy flick Bridge of Spies and newspaper movie The Post use their respective genres to make august, auburn-tinged commentaries on American institutions, past and present. Set in the 1970s, The Post centers on the leak and publication of the Pentagon Papers, the classified documents that proved the government lied about the then-raging Vietnam War. The Post was written by Josh Singer, the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter of Tom McCarthy’s forgettable awards magnet Spotlight. Both The Post and Spotlight are process movies about real-life journalists and their groundbreaking scoops, and they both trace over similar issues regarding the freedoms and responsibilities of the press. It’s as if Spielberg watched Spotlight and thought it might make a good movie someday.