TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

If you can hark back to the ancient days of Oscar season 2011, you'll remember that like this year, there were nine nominees, with one 9/11-themed movie as well: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."   "ELIC" was the odd man out of last year's nominees, with critics not so polarized as they were flat out displeased with it.  That movie dealt with post 9/11 trauma in a completely different way, but Thomas Horn's whiny protagonist and Jessica Chastain's B.A. spy do have one thing in common: they are completely and utterly obsessed with their subject; his finding his father's last message and her....bin Laden. Is there a 17 year old version of her? The movie opens, surprisingly not with the torture sequences you've been hearing so much about, but with 9/11 emergency calls made on that day.  It's a lividly intense few minutes, even if the screen is completely back, and you realize listening to that audio is all the evidence one needs...

There's no easy way to review a movie about 9/11 without bringing up views that are going to offend some people.  So let me start this out with something a little unorthodox: a quote from rapper Lil Wayne.  I'm not the biggest Weezy fan but I did watch his "Behind the Music" special a few years ago.  Regarding Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, Wayne said: (and I'm paraphrasing because it was a while ago) "Why should y'all  care about Katrina?  That's my hometown.  Why are y'all so worried about it?" Wayne meant why did anyone who wasn't from New Orleans care about what had happened so much?  The same thing could be applied to 9/11:  We weren't in the World Trade Center. Why should we care? Sorry if the quote seems a little out there, but I think Wayne had a point, and I can solve it.  It's nationalism.  When terrorists come on to American soil and take down a symbol of not only New York but America, we feel angry, hurt and mos...