I have to disagree with you on Patriot's Day. The only issue I have with it is the composite character played by Marky Mark, but I understand why they did it and otherwise everything is very accurate.
It may be accurate in terms of which actual parts of the events they portray, but it's more how they portray them that annoys me. Even for the inserted hand-held camera scenes, Berg still fails to make what is happening believable to me. He takes things on too simple, too surfaced or too cinematic, failing to make me buy into this film as something deeper than a Hollywood cash-grab or "pat on the back" picture.
It's also a respectful movie towards the victims and survivors. Any real life person who did not want to be portrayed, wasn't.
So they respected who they included in the film, but though they might have gone for a respectful portroyal of the characters, it didn't work for me. The Chinese guy was pretty good, but the rest of the characters were so bland and didn't leave much impact at all. They felt like they were "there" because they were in real life, but not because they actually did much for the story. It felt too forced to have check-list characters like that - the couple who got split up and had to reunite; the boy and father who got split up and had to reunite; the death of a young boy so the impact feels greater and so on...
Some of your words tell me you may have a bias against patriotic American movies, but at least in the case of Patriot's Day, that's how the actual event went down.
I wouldn't say I necessarily have a "bias" towards such movies, but sure I do find them missing the mark most of the times. Whatever movie, the event always seem so dramatized and "set up" and you can always devide the movie into HEROES and ENEMIES (yes in capitals) and it always seem to be more a product made to please the inner patriotism and hail the heroes of the day in such a glorified way that it almost because disrespectful sometimes, because of the overly dramatic way it is done.
You keep saying "that's how it actually went down". Sure, I know the basic story and such, but a movie isn't good just because it follows the real-life story that it is actually based on. That's kind of a given and what you expect from it really... It's more the approach and stylistic choices of a true story movie that sets it apart.
Greengrass' United 93 is a great example of such movie done excellently. The movie seems to be about ordinary people and it doesn't glorify one side or the other. The terrorists are not portrayed much differently than the heroes and the heroic acts come off as natural because of Greengrass' unbiased documenting approach. There is no real "hero moment" with an American flag in the backround or some patriotic remarks. The heroes are hailed as individual human beings and not as superhumans or action heroes, like it can often be the case.
I remember you saying something about you living in Boston/knowing Boston or whatever it was, so doesn't that mean you could have some bias yourself towards the event? The movie is almost made for you then, because you were actually there or know more about the event first hand than I do? In the same way you could say I'm not an expert on the topic and therefore my criticism can be faulty. But really I'm just judging the movie, not the event. And I don't like the movie or how Berg makes movies. So if anything, it's more a bias against Berg than patriotic movies.
Whether you agree or not, I did say
"turning the otherwise goodhearted patriotic picture into a pitiful mocking of those who got injured" - so I actually think the starting point is fine and patriotic movies in its concept doesn't annoy more; though most of the times the execution just don't suit me.
I would think any movie from any country about an attack against them would contain patriotism. I don't understand why that's an American thing, yet you're not the only person I've heard this general view from.
I guess it is in the nature of being an American to be very proud and have big arm moments about being an American. FREEDOM! and all that. I'm not saying all Americans are that way or that being an American is so simple in its nature, but more than others especially their movies seem to scream out a certain proudness of who they are and where they come from. In movies, that often comes off as cheesy or embarrassing to me.
So yeah, patriotism is not an American thing, but it has kind of become associated with America a lot because of the way it is viewed from outside the country itself. So I guess you could also say because I'm not an American, I don't understand the way you guys go about talking and being proud of who you are. Nations are different, countries are different, I might just not understand how you go about it.
I'm looking forward to Mother. I just heard of it for the first time a couple of days ago.
You should. You could very well end up liking it. At least some parts seem right up your alley!