Stop the presses for Spielberg’s ‘The Post’

The Post, director Steven Spielberg’s gripping and taut tackling of the Pentagon Papers scandal, takes place in 1971 but happens to be the most politically timely high-profile Hollywood tale of 2017.

Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep captain a deep bench of character actors in the thrilling drama (★★★; rated PG-13; in New York, Los Angeles and Washington Dec. 22, nationwide Jan. 12), a coffee-swilling joy about government corruption, newspaper rivalries and how a well-sourced story can save the day. While cinematic predecessors like All the President’s Men and, more recently, Spotlight focused on the dogged procedural aspect of reportage, The Post and its sleek depiction of how The Washington Post took on the White House pre-Watergate (and won) is much more about the bigger-picture championing of the First Amendment.

The journalistic battle is fought on two fronts. The New York Times runs a bombshell report about a leaked study tracing three decades of growing involvement in the Vietnam War — a cover-up that spans four presidents and places the blame on Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood). Irked about being scooped, Post editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) rounds up his reporters to dig deeper, and when the Times is shut down by the Department of Justice, Bradlee’s colleague Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) reaches out to whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) to get a complete copy of the Pentagon Papers.

While that’s going on, Post publisher Kay Graham (Streep) — who inherited the newspaper after her husband died — is readying to take the cash-poor family company public. Hoping to invest in more reporters with the influx of cash (“Quality and profitability go hand in hand,” she says), Graham is greeted by a disagreeable board full of stubborn men, and things get intense when she and her employees risk a government injunction by publishing the papers.

Liz Hannah and Josh Singer’s screenplay crackles with intrigue but goes overboard in trying to mirror today’s 24/7 news cycle. The word “collusion” coming up in conversation sticks out to any casual cable-news viewer, there’s a president waging a petty war against media outlets and threatening to pull access over insignificant matters, and Graham’s side of the story offers a strong feminist angle. Bradlee’s wife, Tony (an underutilized Sarah Paulson), is there mainly to remind her spouse — and the audience — about the publisher’s one-woman fight against a patriarchy that wants to put her in her place. (It should come as no surprise that, nevertheless, she persists.)

And it’s a role built for Streep to slay — she has a few rousing speeches that’ll make Oscar voters take note. Hanks is just as enjoyable as a hard-charging and immensely likable leader who sends interns on recon missions and tells in-house lawyers to buzz off when there’s an exposé to be had.

The Post is an inspirational reminder of the importance of a free press while unabashedly making journalism look like the most awesome job ever — akin to what Raiders of the Lost Ark did for archaeology.

The combination of the adventurous Spielbergian lens and a dynamite John Williams score jazzes up the most mundane newspaper conventions, from a copy editor striking words with a red pen to trucks rolling out with first editions. If only the same heroic anthems accompanied the writing of a movie review.

NIKO TAVERNISE Editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) takes on some pretty powerful people in “The Post.”