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Thursday, December 28, 2017

Report Card----"The Post"

"The Post" is all about Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, with some of the same characters as "All The President's Men", two years prior to the Watergate Break-in.  
If you have a strong sense of history, it takes some of the tension out of the story.
You'd know that Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee don't go to jail for publishing the Pentagon Papers.  So the result is a movie that strives for  unpredictability, and only succeeds with viewers
who approach it with no prior lack of knowledge of the subject matter.

On to the scoring:

Did you have any built in expectations about this film, and if so, were they met, or even exceeded?

Spielberg, Streep, Hanks, Bob Oedenkirk, what's not to like?
A+

Is it interesting?

Very.
A.

Compelling even?

Spielberg gets the most out of it.
A.

Is it good storytelling?

Excellent.
A.

Is it well written?

Very.
A.

Is it well cast? Well played?

All of the above.  I kept comparing Hanks to Jason Robards, from "All the President's Men"
Robards was a more convincing Ben Bradlee.
Streep and Oedenkirk were great.
A.

Well shot?

Extremely
A+.

Did the director put such a personal stamp on it so that no one else could have made it?

He always does.
A+.

How long does it take to establish the film's locale and time period?

Immediately
A+.

Is it too long? Too short?

About right.
A.

Is it believable? Do you care about the characters?.

Yes, and yes.
A+.

Is it predictable?

Totally.  See above.
C.

Do you think about it after you've seen it?

No.   I'm too old.
C.

Is it funny?

Here and there.
B.

Would it have been worth the thirteen bucks it would have cost to see it in the movies?

Some bucks..  Not thirteen.
B-.

Is it impressive?

Very.
A.

Overall grade: A.

The younger you are, the more you can get out of it. 
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My books, "Show Runner" and it's sequel, "Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
They are all compilations of blog entries that have since been removed from the blog.
So this is the only way you can find them.,
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne and Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not e-books.
But they are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@comcast.net
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne and Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.

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About Me

Hi. I am, according to my Wikipedia entry,(which I did not create) a noted television writer, playwright, screenwriter, and occasional actor. You can Google me or go to the IMDB to get my credits, and you can come here to get my opinions on things, which I'll try to express eloquently. Hopefully I'll succeed. You can also e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com. Perhaps my biggest claim to fame is being responsible, for about six months in 1975, while Head Writer for the "Happy Days" TV series, for Americans saying to each other "Sit on it."