Resists many of the problems films like this have

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2019)

I was really taken aback by how good this film is. Films dealing with terrorism are often little more than propaganda pieces that are designed to inflame the passions. A lot of films released after 9/11 treat Muslims at best as boogeymen, sometimes with incomprehensible motivations. This film does what it can within the time frame of the attacks to avoid doing that. You spend a great deal of time with the same group of attackers. Each is shown to have a different motivation. Critically, some are shown to be more interested in economic reasons for the attacks, some are more devout, some are attackers are there due their family. This extends all the way to the ring leader coming across as cynically using Islam to further his ends. The resulting picture of the group is a collection of human beings who did a terrible thing. They are not monsters, just terrible human beings.
Films like this also have a nasty habit of inserting a white guy to be the savoir. The film does follow one group of Americans but thankfully the white guy isn't anymore of a hero than anyone else. Indeed the film resist lionizing anyone. The man who saved the most people is, before the attacks, the largest jerk in the film. Some of the survivors are shown to be bigots; there is a really interesting scene about a white woman trying to be comforted by having a Sikh offer to remove his turban. Really the script making the characters human beings is the film's best feature.
This is not to say that the film lacks other merits. The technical direction is quite good and the film effortlessly builds tension. The geography and the logistic of the attacks were easy to understand. Best of all the director shows restraint and does not always go for the shot with the most blood in it. Yet he also shows enough violence to drive home the brutality of the attacks. Like the script the film's direction is finely balanced.
The acting is quite good. I didn't realize Armie Hammer was in the film until the credits. Patel gives a very good performance in this film and his character is the emotional heart of the story. I was just impressed with how everything came together.