September 5

Movies about real life events are quite hard to pull off. You immediately lose the element of surprise over the audience, there often are already other docs/movies exploring the events, and many times they aren’t even events that people want to experience again.

Which begs the question, what business does September 5th even have being made? Let alone, actually being good. In a world where “Munich” & “One Day in September” exists, one wouldn’t think there would be much of an appetite for a third film.

Thankfully, the filmmakers have an answer to all of those questions.

September 5th works because it isn’t interested in interrogating the acts of that dreadful day. It really isn’t even a movie about that day as much as it’s a movie about the media and how challenging events are covered.

Its not interested in the politics, it’s only interested in how the events where covered & what that meant for news going forward. It interrogates the relationship between the audience and a news crew plus the ultimate responsibility of those behind the camera.

For something as uncinematic as broadcasting, September 5th plays much more like a taut thriller than a news movie. Behind the scenes looks at the disagreements between crew members, negotiations amongst networks, and infighting between news & sports make it one of the better journalism movies in recent memory. The short 91 minute runtime allows enough time to flesh out the nuts & bolts of the story, but not too much time to overstay its welcome.