United 93 director Paul Greengrass, Hollywood Reporter columnist & Risky Biz blogger Anne Thompson at last night’s party for the strongly-praised Universal release at Lucques, the upscale eatery on Melrose in West Hollywood — Saturday, 1.13.07, 8:25 pm; United 93 star and former real-life FAA bigwig Ben Sliney (r.) and Movie City News box-office analyst Len Klady (l.); Greengrass (l.), Universal Studios president & COO Ron Meyer (r.); Variety critic Todd McCarthy (second from left); Cheryl Boone Isaacs (far right)
Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers, widely regarded as one of the most effusive blurb-whores in the business, has recorded a radio ad for United 93, reading from his own review copy. Dicey, right? No, actually — it doesn’t seem that way to me. Consider this explanation he offered to L.A. Times writer Rachel Abramowitz.
“I jumped into the mosh pit because of the film in question. We’re not talking Big Momma’s House 2. This is United 93, a film I rank among the best of 2006 [but which]’ has faced resistance from audiences who find the subject of what transpired on September 11th, 2001 too painful and way too soon for a movie to tackle. I disagree. Who knows how effective a radio spot is at encouraging viewers to let down their guards and let this movie in? But given how compassionately and artfully director Paul Greengrass has handled the complexities of United 93, I thought it was worth a try.”
Both the Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KCFCC…sounds like Kentucky Fried Chicken) and the Austin Film Critics have named United 93 as their Best Film of the Year. Will the Academy cowards who’ve refused to see this film heed this latest hosannah, or are they digging their heels all the more with each new award it receives? Can the delicate finessings of Universal Oscar consultant Tony Angelotti achieve the impossible and persuade them to at least watch it?
Movie City News has assembled 164 Top Ten lists from 164 film critics and calibrated the standings based on a point system, and the #1 film is Paul Greengrass‘s United 93 with 590 points, compared to 533 for The Queen, 524 for The Departed, 402 for Pan’s Labyrinth and 392 for Letters From Iwo Jima.
That’s it — there’s no excuse any more for any Academy member who refuses to see United 93. None. at. all. If you, an Academy member, see United 93 and don’t care for it, fine. But if you flat-out refuse to see it, you’re bringing dishonor upon yourself and the Academy and the entire process. If the United 93 cowards had the smallest shred of character they’d resign, but of course they won’t do that. Say it loud and clear: these people are despicable.
I’m just wondering if all those brave adults who refused to see United 93 when it opened last April — the “too soon!” crowd — might be inclined to give it a whirl on DVD now that it’s won the Best Picture prize from the New York Film Critics Circle. You know what? Naaaah.
Director Paul Greengrass during the shooting of United 93
Does this award put United 93 into the running for one of the five slots in the Best Picture Oscar noms? As much as I’d like to see this happen, my sense is that it probably won’t. Those Academy members who were too squeamish about seeing United 93 last April are probably in the same place now no matter how well it does with the critics groups. Universal’s Oscar strategist Tony Angelotti has his work cut out for him, but if anyone can do it…
Rest assured, there is at least some confusion and probably very little joy in Mudville (i.e., Movie City News) over this decision. David Poland pretty much dismissed this film right out of the gate.
I was delighted when I heard the news early this afternoon. I’d just finished a round-table chat with Letters From Iwo Jima star Ken Watanabe and was standing in the banquet room loading up on baked salmon with all the other junket freeloaders when I heard the news from publicist Jeff Hill. I’d pretty much given up any hope for distinguished black sheep of a movie and then…kapow!
Six months ago I wrote that “my choice for the best film of the year so far, no question, is Paul Greengrass‘s United 93 — a film that many, many people still don’t want to see, but is truly a pulse-pounder for the ages, in part because it’s so stunningly well-made, but mainly because the extraordinary craft manifests in all kinds of haunting ways.
“Composed of a thousand details and a thousand echoes, United 93 is a film about revisiting, recapturing, reanimating…about death, loss and a portrait of heroism that, for me, was too much to absorb in a single viewing. I’ve seen it five times, and I can’t wait to watch and re-watch the DVD.:
For the record, the top New York Film Critics Circle winners are United 93 for Best Film, The Departed‘s Martin Scorsese for Best Director, the Best Actress award to The Queen‘s Helen Mirren and the Best Actor prize to Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. Have there ever been a Best Actress and Best Actor pair that have won as many critics awards in tandem as Mirren and Whiaker have?
The awards presentation will take place on Sunday, 1.7.07 at the Supper Club, “a new venue for the organization this year.”
Here for the record is a list of “The Friends of United 93” — myself plus Toronto Star critic Peter Howell (who gave it 5 points on MCN’s Gurus of Gold chart), Sasha Stone (7 points), Lou Lumenick (8 points), Anne Thompson (9 points) and Susan Wloszczyna (10 points). There are no friends of United 93 among Tom O’Neil‘s “Buzzmeter” forecasters at The Envelope. Joiners?
Cast of United 93 during filming in England
Despite recent vigorous efforts by Paramount and Universal to promote World Trade Center and United 93, respectively, as Best Picture contenders, “an Oscar consultant not connected to either film” said to Hollywood Wiretap‘s Pete Hammond a few days ago that “this expensive grab for renewed attention by both films will result in a wash as neither is likely to get into the Best Picture circle.” Maybe not — I don’t entirely agree with whoever said this — but if sheer moviemaking craft mattered to anyone (and I don’t mean the application of nuts- and-bolts know-how but the knack of knowing how to make a picture work in just the right way so what it’s saying comes through without obstruction), United 93 would, no question, be a slam-dunk contender. The reason it’s not being talked up much is because a lot of people out there refused to go see it. I almost used the word “babies” but I thought better of it.
“Watching World Trade Center, I thought of several prominent critics who argued that United 93 was little more than a conventional Hollywood heroism saga in verite-documentary clothing. It’s true the filmmakers didn’t frame 9/11 in the context of a larger geopolitical struggle. But United 93 did lay out, in haunting detail and with stunning immediacy, the lack of military preparedness, the garbled lines of government communication, and the absence, for all practical purposes, of a commander in chief. If it was indeed a saga of heroism, its heroes weren’t conventionally introduced, and all, unconventionally, perished [and was therefore] a fitting monument to people who turned out to be Washington, D.C.’s last and only line of defense.” — David Edelstein, New York magazine.
Three days before World Trade Center opens and here‘s L.A. Daily News critic Glenn Whipp raising the United 93 Oscar flag. Go, Glenn! Oliver Stone‘s film is a thoroughly decent 7.8 on the HE scale, but Paul Greengrass‘s film is far superior and deserves all the salute pieces it can get.
The only thing “off” is that Whipp quotes David Poland as saying that United 93 “was not a powerful emotional experience for most people, and, as the academy goes, emotion leads intellect every time.” Of course, United 93 was nothing but emotional. The very idea of seeing it, in fact, was so emotionally threatening that a lot of people didn’t. What Poland tried to say but couldn’t quite articulate is that United 93 wasn’t sufficently emotional in the right way.
In other words, Academy members wanted a warm and reassuring 9/11 flick and Greengrass didn’t provide their idea of that. The irony is that “warm and reassuring” is precisely what United 93 provides by reminding us that Joe Schmoe Americans are made of very tough stuff indeed, and because of this courage what happened on that flight was one of this country’s absolute finest hours.
And just to remind everyone, my choice for the first deserving Oscar nominee for Best Film of the Year so far, as I said in mid-June, is Paul Greengrass‘s United 93 — a film that many, many people are still too chicken to see, but is “truly a pulse-pounder for the ages, in part because it’s so stunningly well-made, but mainly because the extraordinary craft manifests in all kinds of haunting ways. Composed of a thousand details and a thousand echoes, United 93 is a film about revisiting, recapturing, reanimating…about death, loss and a portrait of heroism that, for me, was too much to absorb in a single viewing. I’ve seen it five times, and I can’t wait to watch and re-watch the DVD.”
United 93 is “the feel-bad American movie of the year”? Catchy pull-quote from N.Y. Times Manohla Dargis, the only problem being that it’s a highly debatable claim. I know what Manohla means, but this is simplistic emotional coding . My idea of a serious feel-bad movie in Barry Sonnenfeld‘s RV. (I would imagine it’s Manohla’s also.) For the life of me I can’t get my head around the idea of a movie as assured and expert and heavily throttled as United 93 making anyone feel “bad.”
“United 93 costar Christian Clemenson, an excellent actor, [has invoked] Tolstoy’s conviction that the aim of art is to state the question clearly — not to provide answers . I’m not sure what that question is in United 93. There’s the obvious one about why communications broke down. There’s a question about what these hijackers looked like, how they saw themselves. And there’s the central question: With more fictionalized 9/11 films to come, including one by Oliver Stone, is it too soon? My answer is that if they truly help us — as the brilliant, tightly focused, and momentous United 93 helps us — to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and to pose more incisive questions, then it is not soon enough.” — New York magazine film critic David Edelstein in the current issue. (Edelstein believes that World Trade Center is “fictionalized”? My understanding is that the script is substantially about what more or less happened. Maybe Edelstein meant “dramatically embroidered“?)
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