Watching the movie "Captain Phillips" -- in which Tom Hanks plays a commercial freighter captain kidnapped by Somali pirates -- I had a sense of deja vu. Movies like this are becoming a type. They're about the interaction between the U.S. and people who don't like us. In "Zero Dark 30" and "Captain Phillips," a crack Seal team shows up, so much better equipped and trained than our adversaries that the whole thing feels like an overmatch.
In movies like "Argo" and "Captain Phillips," there's at least an attempt -- always in the first few minutes -- at taking note of the other side's perspective. "Argo" does a better job in that prologue, but "Captain Phillips" might be a little more successful at maintaining the viewpoint of the Somalis as a tension in the story. Today: critical colassi David Edelstein (Fresh Air/CBS Sunday Morning), A.O. Scott (New York Times), and Culture Dog Sam Hatch round up their favorite fall movies.
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