September 5

Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, September 5 follows a sports broadcasting team, including Peter Sarsgaard’s Roone, John Magaro’s Geoffrey, and Ben Chaplin’s Marvin, as they attempt to cover a shocking happening during the 1972 Olympic Games. It’s inherently compelling subject matter that’s employed to slightly erratic yet mostly engrossing effect by Fehlbaum, as the filmmaker, armed with a screenplay written alongside Moritz Binder and Alex David, delivers a briskly-paced drama that contains its fair share of legitimately enthralling digressions and sequences – with this especially true of an opening stretch focused on the aforementioned team’s initial efforts at finding out what’s actually occurred. There’s little doubt, as well, that September 5 benefits from its superb performances and ongoing emphasis on the characters’ fascinatingly creative solutions to various problems (eg a telephone is jury-rigged to broadcast a reporter’s voice, a studio camera is rolled outside for exterior shots, etc), and while the claustrophobic atmosphere admittedly does result in a small handful of lulls, the picture builds towards a satisfying final stretch that ensures the whole thing concludes on a memorable, positive note – with the end result a periodically fascinating true-life tale that boasts more tension and suspense than most contemporary thrillers.

*** out of ****