United 93
Like Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, U.K. filmmaker Paul Greengrass’ documentary-like look at the events of 9/11 is way too intense to qualify as entertainment, but it does offer the outsider’s view of evil’s banality and how an everyday, mundane airline flight can turn into Armageddon.
Opening with one of the terrorists murmuring a silent prayer as he reads from the Koran in preparation for his suicide mission, the movie juxtaposes the beliefs of the hijackers with those of the passengers, interspersing scenes from the Air Traffic Control units and the military featuring, in many cases, the actual officials from that day as themselves that play like a scene out of 24. The confusion and disbelief that registers on the faces of those involved, as it quickly dawns on them what’s happening, is belied by their calm under pressure, the idea that each one is just doing their everyday job, albeit under the most extreme circumstances imaginable.
The footage inside United 93, the only plane not to reach its intended target (the Capitol building), is almost too much to bear, but the ability of ordinary people to rise to feats of heroism, on both sides of the equation, make this a film worth seeing with lessons that are timeless.
Seymour Cassel
Long before John C. Reilly and Steve Buscemi (whom he co-starred with in ‘92’s In The Soup), this character actor, who made his debut as an associate producer and performer for John Cassavetes’ groundbreaking 1959 neo-realist Shadows, was the king of indie actors. You may not have heard the name, but you’ll never forget his face. The Harlem-born performer earned an Oscar nomination for his role in Cassavetes’ 1968 breakthrough Faces and turned in an incredible performance opposite the director’s wife Gena Rowlands in the 1971 comedy Minnie and Moskowitz, as well as his later films The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, and Love Streams.
More recently, he’s appeared in three Wes Anderson movies, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, in addition to his role as demented agent Morty O’Reilly in the Farrelly Brothers’ Stuck on You. Still a presence at 71, with an omnipresent cigar and a twinkle in his eye, Cassell’s bemused presence in a movie invariably elevates it to another level.
Duma
Now available on demand, this modest feature about a boy and his cheetah from director Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf, Fly Away Home) was given short shrift by Warner Bros., despite a concerted press campaign to keep it alive. It is that rare wildlife movie in which the humans, including a remarkable turn by Alexander Michaeletos as the youngster who goes through the rites of adulthood taking his pet cheetah back to his wild African homeland, are just as finely drawn as the animals.
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