Flick Picks: Does ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ Exploit 9/11?

In our weekly video feature ‘Flick Picks,’ The Daily Beast’s Ramin Setoodeh and Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers debate the new movies opening at a theater near you. See which films get a ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Maybe’ from our critics. This week: Does Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close exploit September 11? Plus, the martial-arts magic of Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This weepie, based on the bestselling novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, was an Oscar frontrunner until the critics mauled it in limited release. But now that it’s opening wide, could Extremely Loud actually be … good? One of us thinks so. Tom Hanks plays a father who perishes on September 11, leaving behind his wife (Sandra Bullock) and their 11-year-old son, Oskar (newcomer Thomas Horn), who embarks on a mission across New York to revive his memory.

Haywire

Director Steven Soderbergh has a history of casting nonprofessional actors. His latest film, Haywire, features a world-famous martial-arts fighter (29-year-old Gina Carano) as a spy on the run. She seriously kicks butt, especially that of the men who try to stop her, from Channing Tatum to Michael Fassbender.