“Nine Days” (2021) — Read Along
“What’s it like to be alive?”
I have long held a fascination for a filmmaker’s debut movie as romantically naive or otherwise, I often view them as an artist at their creative zenith free of a career full of baggage, expectations, past experiences and with a raw and eager determination to showcase their real “vision” for the film. As with painters or artists, actors or authors, bands or would be sports stars, their debut may not be their best performance or recording, the future career ahead full of major highlights and accomplishments, but I’m a sucker for a director’s debut film and so it was almost exactly two years ago to the day that I stumbled upon the debut film from Brazilian born filmmaker Edson Oda and I was incredibly pleased that I had.
Previously known for a decade of short films such as “Laugh and Die”, “The Writer”, “Malaria” and “The Man of Death” among many more, “Nine Days” was his first and still remains his only full length cinematic offering from the director’s chair to this very day, and without any knowledge of the film whatsoever (I still haven’t watched a trailer or read any other reviews of the film) I rather enjoyed an intriguing film of existential angst with an almost ethereal otherworldly feeling akin to Vincent Ward’s 1998 film “What Dreams May Come” with slight echoes of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film “Her”.
So welcome to yet another in my “Read Along” series of articles on favourite films from yesteryear whereby I present to you both my spoiler free written review of the film as well as my Youtube/Rumble video channel recordings of me reading this review direct to camera, so you can read along with me! It’s a strange concept that works in my head if not in the supposed reality of whatever passes these days as the “real world”. The review is a 5 minute read and hopefully a spoiler free taster that will persuade you to watch the film sometime (or watch again) and the video is 6 minutes long and simply me reading the review to camera whilst showcasing my self-published books with a favourite print of a Salvador Dali painting hanging behind me. Exciting eh?!
So here follows a brief excerpt from the beginning of my written review together with the entire review linked immediately below, both my Youtube and Rumble channel videos, a promotional image of four self-published books I’m immensely proud of and a link to volume 3 of my 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon that are all FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package and where you’ll find my full review of “Nine Days” amongst a bulging package of many, many more in every volume.
I hope you enjoy.
Around thirty minutes into this intriguing and somewhat initially baffling tale “Will” (Winston Juke) slowly closes a door on “Emma” (Zazie Beetz) who immediately asks Will the growingly obvious question:
“What’s it like to be alive?”
At which point first time cinematic director Edson Oda brilliantly frames the two characters split by the very frame surrounding the newly closed door, but the juxtaposition couldn’t be any more stark. The asker of the question is full of the very life she seeks, abundant smiles amid a carefree attitude and bathed in the golden glow of colour. The recipient of the question is framed in darkened black and white and perfectly capturing the mood of the man struggling for an answer: slow, ponderous, methodical, purposeful and with barely a smile to be had. All of which is in stark contrast to the tale that now begins to really take off, for Will has experienced a life, and of being alive, whereby Emma hasn’t, and Will is seemingly the arbiter as to whether or not she ever will.
How can one character be alive or have experienced life whilst the other has not? Whilst denying that he is, Will is a “judge” for an as yet unborn soul that will replace a living soul recently departed, and a particular favourite selection of his many years ago. Will has been enchanted with the life of “Amanda” (Lisa Starrett) but along with his trusty aide and confidant “Kyo” (Benedict Wong), he constantly interviews candidates for the earthly role and those who fulfil his meticulous criteria after nine days in a remote, almost surreal yet out of place suburban house, get the winning ticket to find out for themselves what it feels like to be alive in the real world. Several candidates come and go with some staying longer than others, but as the souls are dismissed as being “unsuitable” they are granted a final “wish” before they depart from whence they came.
"Nine Days" (2021) Original Review
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.3
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of this absurd idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
"Monsters" (2010) - Read Along
"Kill List" (2011) - Read Along