September 5
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 13, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKaren GordonJan 17, 2025
As a movie, it’s riveting. It also ends up being a thoughtful study in media coverage very much worth contemplating. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 14, 2025
Even though events have been compressed to fit a 22-hour timeline into a 94-minute movie, and some conversations and characters are fictional, there’s never a moment when it feels as if events have been amped up or overcooked. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedDec 13, 2024
The issues the film raises about journalistic integrity and broadcast morality make September 5 the most rivetingly responsible film about journalism since Steven Spielberg’s The Post. Not to mention the obvious fact that in light of the current political climate, this is a film of gravity that screams relevance and is one of the best achievements of the year. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 12, 2024
September 5 is tough, rough, messy and gritty, in the tradition of American cinema from the decade in which it takes place. Read full review
91
The AtlanticShirley LiJan 22, 2025
September 5 is effective because it doesn’t claim to say anything original about the perils of reporting and consuming breaking news. It’s simply—and bluntly—showing how easily those familiar perils can be overlooked. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 13, 2024
Tight as a drum and almost nauseatingly suspenseful, Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 presents an unexpected angle on a familiar event. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 12, 2024
It’s a serious movie unburdened by self-seriousness, its own and that of the profession it explores with cool, analytic dispassion. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 1, 2024
September 5 doesn’t skimp on any of the technological details — we also learn that Jennings reported events over a telephone, with the receiving end rigged to a studio mic — but Felhbaum steps back often enough to help viewers see the bigger picture at play. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJan 10, 2025
Unfolding like a thriller but uncomfortably real, September 5 is a haunting portrait of a time when seeing terrorism live on television was something new and strange — and a reminder that, sadly, things may not have changed all that much. But it’s also a stirring depiction of people simply doing their jobs, making decisions in the moment as best they can, trying to do things right when there’s no playbook and hundreds of millions of people watching. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 10, 2024
With September 5, Fehlbaum has crafted one of 2024’s most unlikely thrillers. It’s also one of the best movies to reach screens in a year when genuine tension has been too often absent from films in which it should have been a key ingredient. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 1, 2024
The massacre of the Israel team at the 1972 Munich Olympics becomes an absolutely riveting docudrama on journalistic ethics as seen entirely through the control room of ABC Sports doing live coverage. Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Leonie Benesch will pin you to your seat. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastBarry LevittSep 1, 2024
What it does present is a powerfully told, tightly wound, and riveting story of an American sports broadcasting team on a single day reporting on a major event in world history. It’s entirely apolitical in scope. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 10, 2025
It’s terrific: nail-chewing, edge-of-the-seat stuff. Read full review
80
NMEJames MottramFeb 7, 2025
A fresh spin on a difficult topic, it’s a high-wire walk that balances sensitivity and sensationalism. You won’t find a more compelling film this winter. Read full review
80
EmpireBeth WebbFeb 4, 2025
Compelling and excellently acted, September 5 is a shining study of journalistic integrity, even if it skips some of the bigger and more important questions raised by the event it documents. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 13, 2024
The film moves more freely because of its willed unconcern with the historical implications of the Munich hostage massacre; modern audiences may feel the contemporary context makes it naive or obtuse. But it’s a muscular, well-made picture with the tang of cold sweat. Read full review
80
Time OutElizabeth WeitzmanNov 27, 2024
More often than not, September 5 feels like a great 1970s thriller that could only have been made in the 21st century. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 17, 2025
What’s missing, even at its trim, tidy run time, is the sort of glancing realism and true nuance of a Paul Greengrass docudrama such as “Bloody Sunday.” What’s there, though, is enough for a consistently absorbing version of what the media did right and what it did wrong. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrJan 9, 2025
September 5 is an exciting, well-made, thought-provoking movie. Sadly, it couldn’t matter less to where we are now. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 9, 2025
Throughout the film, we know as much as ABC does and nothing more. Filled with scenes of process, it’s as suspenseful as any thriller. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzDec 13, 2024
What we’re seeing in “September 5” is the birth of live news as entertainment. It’s the opening salvo in a long and sadly successful war against journalistic ethics and ideals that would lead to the current pathetic conditions of cable and Internet “news,” which consist largely of “takes” rather than original reporting. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrDec 11, 2024
The film looks of its time, but it also feels fairly modern in its sensibilities which makes it always seem more like a re-telling than an in-the-moment experience. This may be to its detriment, yet it’s still an undeniably riveting and compelling watch. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 2, 2024
September 5 succeeds as a tense and involving film, at least partly because it makes the case that the tragedy, despite all its other consequences and ramifications, marked a signal moment in news broadcasting. It was the first time that a hostage drama played out on live television. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 1, 2024
September 5 works most powerfully as a behind-closed-doors, single-room thriller, even as what we see on a wall of monitors is almost too unreal to believe. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodAug 30, 2024
A taught 91 minutes, September 5 is captivating on multiple levels and, frankly, a surprising success considering Fehlabum‘s previous work. Read full review
74
TheWrapSteve PondNov 12, 2024
It’s hard to watch September 5 without feeling some serious ambivalence – but in a way, that’s one of the strengths of the film, because it embraces that ambivalence as a necessary part of the story. Read full review
70
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 5, 2025
The lack of geopolitical context is questionable, but the film-making is sound. The movie’s editor, Hansjörg Weissbrich, maintains a brisk pace. Deftly used snippets of archive footage amplify the documentary realism. A sure-footed ensemble propels the story towards its harrowing conclusion. Read full review
70
ColliderNate RichardDec 10, 2024
As your run-of-the-mill newsroom thriller, September 5 proves to be a riveting watch with two stand-out performances from Sarsgaard and Magaro and compelling direction from Fehlbaum. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 9, 2024
In this case, revisiting it half a century later, knowing what happened doesn’t preclude us from wanting to get a better understanding of the specifics. But this movie’s insights are limited to the newsroom. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 1, 2024
September 5 recounts that tragic day with a combination of electricity and dread, drawing on strong performances for a meditation on the media’s responsibilities during such a volatile situation. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 13, 2025
For a movie about a tragedy and the struggle to cover it with professionalism and compassion, September 5 is more historically intriguing than compelling and in the end, an emotionally hollow experience. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 7, 2025
With its single, ultimately blood-soaked day to cover, this wants to be a pressure-cooker thriller, but something’s a little off with the settings. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiDec 12, 2024
September 5 splices together its thoroughly researched dramatic recreations with the actual programming ABC aired, an initially nifty back and forth that quickly wears thin. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonDec 12, 2024
Fehlbaum milks a good amount of tension out of men in headsets barking orders at their desks, although the conceit is harder to pull off once the action moves farther away and news comes in slower and slower. Read full review
50
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannJan 17, 2025
It's a riveting film, but one that left me feeling hollow and ultimately frustrated with the continued way in which much of American cinema tackles crises like the one at the center of September 5. Read full review
50
The Film StageLucia AhrensdorfNov 5, 2024
It’s an effective thriller––one couldn’t accuse it of being boring––but takes what feels like the safest possible approach to its fraught subject matter. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 16, 2025
The idea that it serves a film like September 5 to tell its story through an apolitical lens isn’t just wrong: it’s laughable. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineGregory NussenOct 29, 2024
The film isn’t interested in anything that would detract from providing audiences with the sustained pleasure of watching a clock-ticking thriller. Read full review
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