United 93 (2006)

Directed by Paul Greengrass. [R]

Intense, grueling docudrama-style recreation of the events on the morning of September 11, 2001; first, among air traffic controllers and military personnel, and then an up-close chronicle of the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 and the resistance undertaken by passengers and flight crews to overwhelm the hijackers and crash the plane. Gripping in spite of the foregone conclusion and the nearly non-existent character development/arcs; director Greengrass simply observes the actions and reactions of dozens of involved parties both on the ground and in the air, without any political posturing and only minimal emotional manipulation. Indeed, while the sweat-inducing exercise doesn’t quite emerge on the other side having avoided the temptation to be exploitative, these rare moments are rationed out conservatively enough to forgive. Because of such detailed indifference, there are passages that survive only through breathless urgency, as jargon and blinkered understanding restricts investment, yet for all of its absence of artistic attitude, there’s far more to parse here through than mere visceral queasiness, including the desperate, messy heroism involved, and the sheer confusion at play among tedious procedure and so many broken lines of communication. Although certain aspects needed to be “imagined” because factual information is limited when it came to the incidents and personalities aboard Flight 93, the authenticity-when-authenticity-is-possible quotient is commendably high. Several of the non-professional actors in the ground scenes were played by real-life controllers, personnel, etc.

85/100

Note: I did not provide a cast list for United 93 because almost none of the characters are referred to by name, and very few of the actors are easily recognizable in their roles (both aspects being intentional decisions by the filmmakers), so in most cases, I am unable to parse out which specific actors are portraying the roles that have the most screentime and/or importance to the story.