Breaking news! This week on Cinemaholics, Special guest Ema Sasic joins me (Jon Negroni) to dissect September 5, a gripping new thriller from director Tim Fehlbaum (The Colony). The film takes us back to the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, where sports coverage took an unprecedented turn into live, global news reporting during one of the most tragic and pivotal events in history. Together, we break down the film’s high-tension pacing and commentary on media ethics. Plus, we talk awards potential and about the standout performances from John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Leonie Benesch, and more.
You can also read an edited transcript of our conversation below the “links” section.
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Transcript of our review for September 5:
This transcript has been edited for length/clarity and does not include our entire conversation.
Jon Negroni
Welcome to Cinemaholics! I’m Jon Negroni, and today we are diving into September 5. It is a gripping new film that takes us back to the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, where sports coverage took an unprecedented turn into live global news reporting during one of the most tragic and pivotal events in media history. Joining me for this conversation is the insightful and always delightful Ema Sasic.
Ema is a reporter for The Desert Sun and a contributor to Next Best Picture, as well as the co-host of her own podcast, Weekly Pop. Welcome back to Cinemaholics, Ema. How are you doing?
Ema Sasic
I’m so wonderful. My goodness, “always delightful and insightful”? This is so much pressure on me. I do not like all the pressure you’re putting on me today.
Jon Negroni
Well, I was telling you before the recording that this would probably happen because we’re talking about a suspenseful, thrilling movie. It’s media-related, so we’ve got to get the vibe right.
Ema Sasic
Exactly. So we’re here. We’re gonna have a lovely time. Thank you so much for having me back. It’s always a pleasure.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, I was very stoked that you were able to make this because, in terms of people to talk about a film that has to do with reporting and these really interesting questions about the media, you are, of course, knee-deep in the media. I can imagine you have a lot of insights in that realm.
Ema Sasic
I do. That makes me even more excited to be here because I felt the stress that these people were going through since I was looking at myself too.
Jon Negroni
Now, before we get into the podcast itself—first of all, Ema, I know you’re working on a lot of stuff, both getting awards season coverage going and everything else. I wanted to mention that we’re going to have your link tree in the show notes so people can find your work, your reviews, and everything. But how’s awards season going for you, just in general?
Ema Sasic
It’s busy. I mean, we were just chatting a few minutes ago that we’re both trying to figure out what to watch right before the deadlines are over. And even when we get to that point, we’re not going to be able to see everything that’s on our list. I somehow have a list of needing to watch 20 movies in like two days, and it’s not going to happen for me.
Jon Negroni
And that’s saying something because I know you went to some festivals this year, and you definitely were able to see some things ahead of time. I have been horrifically lazy in 2024. I was just looking at the stats, and I’m trying to dogpile all these movies now. This is the lowest number of movies I’ve watched in a year since 2014, which is pretty bad.
Ema Sasic
Really? Wow. Why are you so lazy? Let’s expand.
Jon Negroni
That’s a great question. I’ve been asking myself that. No, no, I’ve told the listeners of the show, I’ve been stepping back quite a bit from film coverage purposefully and focusing on other things. But it’s kind of nice because then awards season comes around, and I have so many fun things to watch.
Ema Sasic
I understand. That’s great. I’m still very much in the mindset of doing this every single week, going to theaters, seeing what’s out there. If I’m lucky enough to go to a film festival, that, of course, gives you like four to five movies to watch every day. By the end, I’ve got bags under my eyes, but I feel like I’ve been doing fairly well. I do still have some outstanding things to watch. A lot of things have yet to be released in theaters, but again, we’re very lucky to receive screeners this time of year too. That makes the task a little bit easier. But as I’ve said, there’s still so much to watch.
Even though I’m not going to get everything by the time my ballot is due, it’s nice to still have the rest of the month to watch things for my own top 10 list and all of that stuff. But I suppose it’s a fun challenge, and I understand you wanting to step back and figure out some other things in life.
Jon Negroni
For sure, yeah. Life stuff is always going on. I will be going to Sundance in person this year in January, which I’m so excited about. I haven’t been in person in so long, and I’m hoping to—because I remember the last time I went in person, I think I saw like 30-ish movies. It was so fun. I want to do that again while I have the chance.
Ema Sasic
Oh my gosh. While you don’t sleep whatsoever.
Jon Negroni
Right. And I know that’s where I met a bunch of Next Best Picture folks for the first time. That’s where I met the Oscar expert. It’s always just fun hanging out with people there. But before we get to all that stuff—I mean, I know for me, I’m curious what’s on your short list. I have to mention that this is your Cinemaholics hat trick. We’ve had you once a year on the show since 2021, but you missed 2023. That’s my fault, obviously, for not inviting you on as much as possible. Sorry.
Ema Sasic
No, no, that’s okay.
Jon Negroni
So far, we’ve invited you on every November or December. You first came on for Titane. I’ll never forget that. That movie—I think about it all the time. Then, a year later, we had you on for The Menu. It holds up. Just saying, The Menu still kind of… it cooks with fire, yeah.
Ema Sasic
Yes. And this year, Nicholas Hoult is having a fantastic year with Nosferatu and Juror No. 2. Once again, he’s having a great time.
Jon Negroni
Yes, yes. And it’s his year, right? I think for Anya Taylor-Joy, besides Dune Part Two… wait, Furiosa! There it is. I knew there was something else. Anyway, yeah, this is your hat trick. I’m looking at my list for what I still have to watch. Please don’t yell at me—I still haven’t seen Wicked. I have the screener too. I just keep being like, well, I could watch Wicked, but I really want to watch Kneecap because it’s shorter.
Ema Sasic
I can understand that because, actually, the other night, I made that same exact decision. I’m planning on watching this film today, so please don’t yell at me, but I still have yet to see Seed of the Sacred Fig. Seed of the Sacred Fig and Wickedhave pretty much the same runtime—two hours and forty-some minutes.
Jon Negroni
I haven’t seen it either. I know it’s up there for me right now.
Ema Sasic
And so I looked at that and said, okay, but Kneecap is only an hour and a half. I could squeeze that in tonight. So I made that exact same decision.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, I was nervous about it too because I thought, what if this replaces Anora as my movie of the year? That’s always a possibility. I still have A Complete Unknown, which I’m ready to go screener-wise, and Nosferatu. I’m ready to see those two. But I have to say, the movie that’s been kind of hanging over me… I just finished The Brutalist.
Ema Sasic
It’s long.
Jon Negroni
It took me forever because that movie is so long. Unbelievable. You mentioned Juror No. 2. I really want to see that ASAP.
Ema Sasic
You still haven’t? Yeah, we have a little bit to catch up on.
Jon Negroni
No, I’m so behind. It’s pretty bad. It’s pretty bad. What’s the one you’re like, “All right, I can’t miss it”? You haven’t seen it yet—besides Seed of the Sacred Fig.
Ema Sasic
Yes, so my to-do list for today includes Seed of the Sacred Fig and A Complete Unknown. Both films are about two and a half hours long, so we have to strap in. I have a few international features I need to see too, such as The Girl with the Needle and Green Border. I’ve heard very good things about Green Border. Then I kind of want to revisit a few things as well, such as Queer. I was able to go to Venice earlier this year, and that was one of the films I saw. It was an interesting watch. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see Queer yet.
Jon Negroni
No. I’ve heard middling things so far. I’m kind of nervous about it.
Ema Sasic
It’s a film I watched, and I kind of said, “This is movie number 537 at this point in the week, so I really need to give it another chance.” I’m hoping to do that this weekend.
Jon Negroni
The thing that was told to me was if you loved Challengers, you’re probably going to prefer Challengers over it. But I’m ready to be surprised because you know me and Luca Guadagnino… we’re like this.
All right, I guess with that, we can get into our review of September 5.
So, okay, September 5 or September 5th, whichever—it was directed by Tim Feldbaum, and it follows the ABC Sports broadcasting team in 1972 Munich as they were thrust into the chaos of reporting live on the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
It’s a moment that not only changed the course of the Olympics but forever altered how live news is handled. At the heart of the story is Geoff Mason, played by John Magaro, a young but ambitious producer trying to prove himself to his boss, the legendary TV executive Rune Allredge, portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard. Add in Leonie Benesch as a German interpreter, Marianne, and Ben Chaplin as Geoff’s mentor, Marvin, and you’ve got a cast navigating intense moral decisions, high-stakes reporting, and the very human costs of covering a tragedy.
The film raises timeless questions about the role of the media in moments of crisis, and it’s going to open in limited release on December 13 before expanding wider in early January of next year. So, Ema, what did you think of September 5? I believe this one came out at Venice this year, the 81st Venice Film Festival, and that’s where you saw it, correct?
Ema Sasic
Actually, I did not get a chance to see it at Venice because I had to prioritize a few other things. This was one of the films I just watched earlier this week on an outstanding screener, so it’s fresh in my mind. I quite enjoyed this film. In terms of the way it’s edited and sequenced, it’s very gripping. It’s very intense. I like that, pretty much for the entirety of this film, you are deep in the throes of this newsroom, and the live events are unfolding as they happen.
In terms of journalism films—we’ve certainly had a lot of films in recent years about journalism and the work that goes into it—oftentimes, it might be like She Said, where you’re following a long-form piece investigated over several months, maybe over a year. With this one, I like that it’s “day of”—this is everything that’s going on. It feels very true to what this profession is. I’m not in TV news myself; however, I do work for a daily newspaper. And when sh** hits the fan, you just have to be ready for it. I kind of like that this film is very much unflinching in that way.
Also, I wrote down a few things that are always true in journalism: You never know what any given day will bring, there’s a constant battle between being right and being first, and when all hell breaks loose, you have to strap in for the ride. I feel like all three of those things are portrayed really well in this film.
There’s always the argument: Do we broadcast this? But what happens if, I don’t know, some violence occurs? Are we going to be the station that shows that? We have unconfirmed reports—do we feel comfortable with this, or do we wait until we hear from officials and risk being the last to announce the news? These are all things we have to consider in this industry. It’s very cool to see something like this shown.
It is a tragic event unfolding in this film, but that’s often when you get the best journalism because people know they have to be on top of it. They have to pull out all the stops to speak to the right people and get the right types of coverage. I appreciated that from the professional journalist in me.
Overall, I thought this film had fabulous performances, especially from John, Peter, and Leonie. The editing was really, really great. So overall, I was quite a big fan of this film.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, I’m a fan as well. I really like when a journalism movie educates people about what journalism really is, but in an entertaining way. Sometimes I think journalism movies can be a little too glamorized. You have movies like—not to pick on She Said, but maybe The Post is a bit closer to that. Not that I dislike that movie, but it gave me pause in terms of what takeaways people might have from it.
This film, for me, is more in the vein of Spotlight, which really shows the painstaking effort that goes into reporting things accurately, the different gray areas, and how the hierarchies work. These are things the average person doesn’t have context for. People think of the media as a monolithic thing, and there’s this knee-jerk reaction: “I hate the media.” I hear that, and I’m like, “Me too.” But I get suspicious—”why do you hate the media?”
So it’s useful to have a movie like this that kind of shows us how far we’ve come. The movie is very much archival, using real footage of the main anchor at the time, Jim McKay—I’m pretty sure that’s his name. That’s actually footage from the event. It’s a chamber piece movie in the sense that we’re always in the control room. They even add a bit of graininess to the visuals.
It doesn’t look like it was made in the ‘70s, but it looks closer than it would otherwise. It’s all the little details, the little things they did. I was fortunate enough to talk to Tim Feldbaum yesterday, as well as John Magaro. We were chatting about the movie. That interview will be on the feed after this.
When we were talking, Tim kept going on and on about all the little things they were able to find because ABC helped them out. Geoff Mason, in real life, had access to legitimate 16mm film reels that they were able to incorporate into the movie. That kind of detail-oriented nature really impressed me. The film properly translates that level of care to the audience.
Ema Sasic
Absolutely. And as you said, it really gives you a peek behind the curtain. As much as I like to trust my journalists, I know that’s not a given for everyone. However, when you’re in this type of situation—and of course, my day-to-day work doesn’t involve covering the Olympics or a terrorist attack—you’re still navigating those same challenges.
For example, a few months ago, I had to go to the scene of a crime where three people had been killed—two in a car and another body not far away. It was 4:55 p.m., five minutes before my shift was supposed to end. I thought, “All right, I guess I’m heading out there in the middle of summer to figure out what’s going on.”
You don’t always know who to call, where to go, or who will actually tell you something. I like that the film captures this boots-on-the-ground approach, showing what it’s really like to cover a breaking story like this.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, I think a lot of people can relate to that wave of anxiety when you’re going about your day, and suddenly something wild and unpredictable happens. The day before I interviewed John Magaro, I was in San Francisco, and we got a tsunami warning. It was surreal.
John and I talked about how strange it was. He said it reminded him of a moment in the movie where someone asks, “Did you just hear gunshots?” Everyone’s processing it slowly, trying to figure out if something bad just happened.
Ema Sasic
Exactly. It’s like you clock in thinking it’ll be a quiet shift, but then suddenly, everything is happening all at once.
Jon Negroni
Absolutely. That emotional unpredictability is one of the things that stuck with me about this movie. It’s definitely a thriller, with good pacing and editing that efficiently moves you from A to B.
One critique I’ve seen is that while the story has authenticity, people wonder, “What’s the payoff?” The movie was made before the October 7 terrorist attacks and the ongoing war with Gaza. So much of this movie echoes those events—terrorists negotiating the release of hostages, for instance. Some critics say the film doesn’t grapple with that enough.
Is it fair to criticize a movie made before those events for not engaging with them? That’s one of those gray areas where it depends on the audience and how they choose to process it.
Ema Sasic
Yes, I’ve definitely seen people say it was in poor taste to release or even make this film. I don’t know the exact production timeline, but I understand this was in development during the COVID lockdowns.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, John Magaro mentioned they started research in 2021, meeting with Geoff Mason during the pandemic.
Ema Sasic
That makes sense. So, two-plus years before recent events. Personally, I’m just taking the film as it is. A lot of canceled actors and directors still make movies, and some people critique their work with added context from their personal lives. I usually just evaluate what’s on the screen.
That said, I acknowledge the timing can be questionable and understand why others might view it differently.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, and I think there’s a valid reading that the film feels incomplete in some respects. It covers just one day and examines how terms like “terrorism” became normalized. It’s not about the geopolitics of the conflict but the ethics of covering terrorism. Who does it help? Who does it harm?
The film also shows that the people making these decisions aren’t always equipped for such high-pressure situations. I appreciated that the film didn’t take an Argo-like approach, turning it into a heist narrative about getting the reels to the right place. Instead, it treated the events with the gravity they deserve.
Ema Sasic
Yes, and it emphasizes the responsibility of being first versus being right. What terms are we using? How are we labeling events? Newsrooms have those conversations during crises. For example, after January 6, some labeled it a “domestic terrorist attack,” others an “insurrection.” These discussions are ongoing even as you’re still trying to confirm facts.
Jon Negroni
Exactly. This is what movies should do: explore these complexities, even if they don’t get everything 100% right. I thought of Spielberg’s Munich while watching this. It’s a long time ago—1972—but the question isn’t, “Are the hostages going to be okay?” The question is, “Can this newsroom handle this responsibility?”
That angle feels fresh, even though the events have been covered before in cinema. But some audiences might not want that kind of movie, so I’m curious how it’ll land when it goes wide in January. It’s in the conversation for awards but isn’t a front-runner.
Ema Sasic
Right. A couple of months ago, The Hollywood Reporter predicted it would win Best Picture, and people were like, “Really?” I’m not sure what will win, but this film has a lot working in its favor—especially the editing. It’s well-paced, under two hours, and sticks to the journalists’ perspective, which feels authentic.
Jon Negroni
Yeah, and there’s a stylistic flair that might appeal to awards voters. It’s not necessarily an audience favorite, but it’s a solid recommendation.
Ema Sasic
Agreed. I’m curious about how audiences will respond, especially given the heavy subject matter.
Jon Negroni
Well, Ema, thanks so much for coming on Cinemaholics. It’s always a pleasure to have you. Hopefully, we can get you on again soon—maybe even before next November!
Ema Sasic
Thank you so much for having me. I love being here every year.
Jon Negroni
Don’t forget to check out more of Ema’s work—we’ll link her Linktree in the show notes. Thanks for listening, everyone!
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