Movies About Terrorists.

We caught United 93 on cable last night and it was NOTHING like what I expected. Maybe it's because usually these kinds of movies, made so quickly after the fact (wasn't it?), are just terrible.

I had this image that it would start with us meeting all the family members of each of the passengers and fake little soap opera back stories, like the original airplane disaster movies. And that it would be all weepy, and then heroic.

But it was a tense thriller with zero fat on it. At the end, both Jim and I came out of our seats, hearts pounding.

He said, "You know I have not been wanting to watch this movie. I have been avoiding like the plague. But that was a good movie."

I told him, "Me too! It was fantastic." What convinced me was discovering it was directed by Paul Greengrass who did the last two Bourne movies. I remembered it coming up a lot around the Academy Awards.

I think it will stay with me for a long time. And I'm glad.

We saw a film short made by a couple of friends of ours, called Ablution, about a terrorist who faces a moral dilemma. It was in the Beverly Hills Film Festival and they won both Best Film and Best Lead Actor. Directed by Dan Searle starring Alberto Zeni. Both also wrote it.



This is their second festival win, so congrats, kids!