Tag: 9/11

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

On the heels of a much-undeserved Best Picture nomination for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” I began to wonder how it could’ve appealed to so many Academy voters. On paper, Stephen Daldry’s film is total Oscar bait, but in execution it feels more genuinely hurtful than exploitative, melodramatic and weepy.

Much of that has to do with “Extremely Loud’s” extremely unlikeable lead character, the 9-year-old Oskar Schell. Oskar is portrayed brilliantly by the first time actor Thomas Horn, who carries the film and has a strong assertion over this character’s mannerisms, but Oskar’s irritating characterization, either stemming from Jonathan Safran Foer’s popular novel of the same name, or from Eric Roth’s (“Forrest Gump,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) screenplay, does the movie wrong. Continue reading “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”

9/11 (Documentary)

There’s a sense that with the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 it would be of very bad taste to say anything even remotely negative or critical. There’s also the sense that such a national tragedy could not possibly be emotionally manipulative, and yet I wonder if “9/11” crosses the line ever so slightly.

Let me preface this review by saying that “9/11,” a documentary shot the day of the attacks in New York, has its impressive moments and a worthy place in history. What’s more, this film sets out to commemorate the efforts of the firefighters who lost their lives that day trying to save others and honors them in spades.

Two amateur French filmmakers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, direct the documentary, and they were lucky enough, or unlucky enough more accurately, to be in New York on 9/11 as they were filming another documentary about a young probationary firefighter. Their story changed dramatically in the course of filming, as is typical of many great documentaries.

And their made for TV documentary includes the only known footage of a plane hitting the first tower, and further the only known footage from inside the tower as it was burning, under attack and collapsing.

This is remarkable yes, and many news outlets used this exact footage when compiling their coverage of the terrorist attacks.

The difference I’d like to point out is that much of the footage is remarkable merely because it exists. Errol Morris was not the documentarian trapped amidst all the rubble and chaos, and it shows. The footage, about all of it captured on low quality handheld cams, is about as great as an amateur filmmaker could hope for. Continue reading “9/11 (Documentary)”

United 93

 

Anyone who thinks it’s too soon to discuss the events of 9/11 has not seen “United 93.” They will accuse it of exploiting the greatest tragedy in American history for the purposes of entertainment, but what they do not know is that this is a masterpiece of filmmaking and a bombshell of the true nature of humanity.

Paul Greengrass’s work on “United 93” pays an honorable tribute to the heroic people killed in the hijacked plane that did not reach its target by staying strictly truthful to the source material. What is seen is not dramatized or exaggerated. It is a reenactment of the day’s events, based on actual conversations from the plane and on the ground, all in real time. Watch it, and try not to be awestruck by the might of this film. To not be is to snub the valiant efforts of the people on board. Continue reading “United 93”