World Trade Center

I know this comes a bit late, but it's every bit as powerful as the first time I saw a quaint version of a horrifying event.

As you know, there were people alive on September 11th, 2001. Then later in the day a bunch died. Oliver Stoned and writer Andrea Berloff (with a little inspiration from Khalid Sheik Mohammed) remembered that it happened and on August 9th, 2006, premiered something equally as offensive as the September 11th attacks. The apolitical quaint version called "World Trade Center".

For those of you who have never seen slow motion or the last 30 minutes of Lord Of The Rings: Return of The King will get real acquainted with the time-honored film process. Maria Bello sniffing Nic Cage's dirty laundry, slow motion. The cops riding on the bus to the burning towers, slow motion. When Nic Cage yells "Run", slow motion. The picnic at the end of the movie, slow motion. It is a solid effort by Stoned to wring out every moment of tragedy for as long as possible. I haven't seen melodrama this palpable since Douglas Sirk.

Stoned and Berloff did their darndest to come up with an image that encapulates what America is while also raising questions of it's intentions. When the shadow of a hijacked plane flys over a billboard for Zoolander, Stoned and Berloff make you wonder if it wasn't a coincidence that it was in theatres at the time. Perhaps in the future Stoned will grace us with his feelings on Zoolander and if it has any correlation with the attacks.

Bottom line, Oliver Stoned should've killed 3,000 people to make this movie the right way.

P.S. Nicolas Cage lives.