Stop Jerking!

I was planning on writing a review for Paul Greengrass’s United 93, but I didn’t get to watch the entire film. I had to walk out of the theater halfway into the movie or else I would have thrown up. The jerky camera work was torturing. The subject matter alone is sensitive, and the unprofessional, homegrown filming style makes it impossible to bear. Do we really need a poor-quality motion picture to remind us the darkest day of America? Here is what Manohla Dargris, film critic of the New York Times, has to say:

Sept. 11 has shaped our political discourse and even infiltrated our popular culture, though as usual Hollywood has been awfully late to that table. Yet five years after the fact and all the books, newspaper and magazine articles, committees and scandals later, I think we need something more from our film artists than another thrill ride and an emotional pummeling. “United 93” inspires pity and terror, no doubt. But catharsis? I’m still waiting for that.