This review was not written by me, it was written by my good friend Yaseen Fawzi. I wanted to share some of his reviews by posting them on my website. All credit goes to him, not me. He writes a lot of great reviews and this is yet another one 🙂 I am aware that Sully came out in early September (this is now October) and even though I would have given Sully * * * * out of * * * * stars, I still feel that Yaseen has wrote a great review. Here is Yaseen’s review of Sully below:

Sully
A Review
by
Guest
Reviewer
Yaseen Fawzi
September 17, 2016

Clint Eastwood’s new film Sully centers on Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot of the US Airways Flight 1549 that landed safely in the Hudson River with all 155 people on board surviving in early 2009. Sully is now declared a national hero, but as soon as he experiences the aftermath of this incident and tries to rationalize what has just happened, he faces intense questioning from both the NTSB and the media. The NTSB believes that it would have been possible for the plane to land at the LaGuardia airport, since one of the engines was still working sufficiently. As Sully nears the inevitable hearings, he soon realizes he has to face his own inner struggles in order to realize the truth.    

The film focuses heavily on Sully as he tries to make sense about the ensuing chaos surrounding him, his fellow pilots, and his career. Just as he says in one sequence, he doesn’t actually feel like a hero, and in many sequences throughout, Sully feels like he has been a witness to a crime scene, and so does the audience. The direction, cinematography, and editing all have the naturalistic feel of a documentary, in the sense that it feels more and more like you are witnessing Sully as he undergoes his NTSB hearings and when he is in self-doubt. It is also well-executed in cutting back and forth between the flight and the events thereafter, as well as being cleverly made to subvert the overall perspective being experienced by the viewer. This being Eastwood’s first movie filmed on IMAX cameras, it really adds to the overall atmosphere and intense sense of panic and high anxiety that occurs during the fateful flight. In just 96 minutes, Eastwood is able to cover the most important aspects from before and after the day of Flight 1549. However, he is also able to pull back and focus heavily on a character, real or fictional, and their thought process, like many of the Golden Age directors. He and screenwriter Todd Komarnicki spend just as much time on the passengers, co-pilots, and other civilians as they do on Sully himself, which makes for an effective storytelling balance.        

Tom Hanks’ performance as Sully is elevated to the point that you are not watching Hanks acting, but rather, that he is Sully. Capturing every little nuance and mannerism of Sully, Hanks portrays him as somebody mostly unsure about what is happening around him, which is part of his ability to follow his everyman persona. Aaron Eckhart brings a subtle dose of humor as Sully’s co-pilot Mike Ellis, while Laura Linney is given a more subdued but equally as important role as Sully’s wife Lorraine. On the other hand, the actors portraying the passengers range from average to bland in their performances.

Sully is another clear candidate for the shelf of Clint Eastwood’s best films, in addition to featuring one of Tom Hanks’ best performances as an uncompromising modern-day hero.

* * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *) “Ya-stars”