Of the big fish out for awards this season, certainly none comes more grotesquely plump with Oscar bait than The Post. Directed by Steven Spielberg—who tends to have pretty good awards luck when he gets emotional with some historical drama—the film focuses on the Washington Post and its role in exposing the 1971 Pentagon Papers, uncovering the U.S.’s clandestine role in Vietnam. Meryl Streep stars as Kay Graham, the publisher who fought the federal government over the right to publish the documents; Tom Hanks plays Post editor Ben Bradlee—a role that already earned Jason Robards a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for All the President’s Men; and the supporting cast includes top-notch television ringers Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Carrie Coon, Matthew Rhys (The Americans), Bradley Whitford, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Alison Brie, Bruce Greenwood, Michael Stuhlbarg, Zach Woods, and Tracy Letts. Aptly enough, this timely Spotlight-on-‘roids was also co-written by Spotlight co-writer Josh Singer (along with newcomer Liz Hannah).
The Post comes for its statuettes December 22.
