"District 9" , and I'm telling you now: GO. If you have to dump out your couch cushions for change or are deciding between lunch one day and the $10, skip lunch ( trust me, you will want to have saved yourself the nausea anyway; it's graphic). Just don't kick yourself later for seeing what has to be the most original movie I've seen in YEARS, with a plot that completely has you guessing untill the very last moment how it's going end, morally conflicted and complex characters and underlying themes that will have you thinking and talking long after you leave the theater. What more could you want?
There's something here for everyone! ( Except kids. Definitely not kids. Please heed the rating and adhere to its guidelines like law in this case.) You want a little action? This movie's got it in spades. A little sentiment? Oh, my friend, the end is a killer. Not a non-misty eye in the house, I'll bet. There's even a bit of a love story there. You want some thrills? Definitely the unexpected at every turn. Howsabout a little sci-fi? A little Smoking Gun/government conspiracy/(with a little Superhero stuff thrown in for good measure)? Well, I don't think I'm giving away the farm here by telling you it's an alien movie ( which, trust me-- I *know* how you're already rolling your eyes. I did when Brother started giving me the hard sell about it. I rolled my eyes and said, "You know,I don't KNOW. Aliens? I'm not into that, really....vamps? Yes. Aliens?!? Get serious.").
But do NOT be fooled by that small detail. What is really here is a movie about ghetto-ization( sp?) of cultures and peoples we find different and scary, with themes reaching deep into our ethics surrounding human/animal/Other ( yes, with a capital "O" ; thank you, Michel Foucault and Edward Said ) rights, medical experimentation, rascism, urban fear and tension, corruption in government "social service" agencies, the subtext of genocide in the marginalizing of any group, and finally, the moral questions surrounding the uses of technology and the ruthless global market capitalism it feeds.
Sound like enough to get your head rolling on a random Thursday night? Good then. GO SEE IT!
~~~~~~~~~Now, for some spoilers.~~~~~~~~~
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So one important thing I'd forgotten about taking movie recommendations from my Beloved Brother: his stomach for all things grisly and gore-splattering is much stronger than mine. I've not always been such a pansy for screen violence, although I believe some other movie reviews I've posted ( see "The Dark Knight" post and my near-barf report on"The Golden Compass" ) will reveal my high sensitivity to either psychological/torture driven violence and/or surprising, sudden outbursts of it. Generally, I can take just plain old blood n' guts, but if the emotional/psychological component is there, I'm sitting there trying to find my steely reserve to make it through.
In short, I've had a tendency to become sickened ( and sometimes actually vomit!) at intense films that keep my adrenaline/emotions going non-stop, especially if there's some point where a graphically bloody visual is involved (for example, I had to leave the brilliant and haunting "Requiem for A Dream" for a solid 20 minutes, and I would rate the gore/grossness factor there at about a 2 on a scale of 10!). But it seems to me ( and my brother indeed confirmed this suspiscion) that in the last 5 years or so, films of all genres have kind of gotten REALLY graphic.
Such is the case here. While it was certainly all justifiable- this is a place where brutality rules and barbarism is the order of the day- I reached a point about an hour in where I had to fucking. Leave. The. Room. My poor brain couldn't take the onslaught anymore, and you know what? Sensitive or not, I think there's a reason for that. We're not built, as human beings, feeling empathetic entities, to really VIEW those kinds of things over an extended period of time. That's why people who do end up with PTSD or an utterly bizarre detachment from and/or fascination with gruesome acts. After seeing this movie, I would lobby that we scale back a wee bit on the exploding heads and severed limbs in our shared cultural pool of visuals. I'm not asking for censorship-- you'll NEVER see me advocating for that-- I'm just asking that not EVERY shot that hits its target show a slo-mo MCU of someone's skull fragments flying away and their lifeless eyes as they hit the ground. If we can agree on that, I think we're good.
Anyway, onto the rest of it:
When I wasn't thinking I was going to retch up my popcorn ( my poor friend Jack was like, "are you gonna be okay?" Sweet Jack. Gotta love him. You might recall he's a former BF from last spring. Still friends, still as cool as ever. See? I don't have an epic fallout from EVERYONE I've ever dated!!), I was just on the verge of tears most of the time. I clearly saw both sides in this film, but of course, I felt for the "Prawns", who did nothing and are now completely at the government's mercy. Of course, they aren't entirely sympathetic; they are depicted at first as being savage and scavenging burdens to the city, creating chaos and destruction wherever they go ( hence the need for a "relocation" to a "controlled" area , aka District 9). But as with any ghetto, things quickly decompensate to even more violence and ruthless behavior ( funny how deprivation and discrimination will bring that along, eh?) among its inhabitants. Not to mention the opportunisitic folks slither in under the fence to take advantage of the blighted ( Jack commented after we left, "Well, the Nigerians won't be happy with how they're depicted!!") However, I did like the scope of the writer's mind: he clearly understood the kinds of social systems and strata and desperate spiritual beliefs that spring up in these populations ( I'd just started a book on Santeria this week, so I thought it was particularly insightful to see some primal beliefs being incorporated into the storyline.). He really got it, and filled it all in with such detail visually, you could have switched out the aliens for Congo refugees and it would have been the same. Very smart stuff.
But the truly amazing thing from a Hollywood perspective is that this little film cost $30 million to make ( that's pennies, I assure you) and looked like a $250 million blockbuster. Whomever planned out the budget should get an Oscar just for THAT. Here you've got aliens to costume, a spaceship to build, CG, several complex sets including a medical facility ( never an easy one to pull off) and ariel shots galore, all looking really sharp and genuinely well-crafted. How did they do it?
I'll tell you one way: no big name actors sucking up the budget! I totally can't stand-- yes, even as an actor!-- that big names ask for such outrageous paychecks. Yes, I know, you're So-And-So, and you get people in the seats, and your name alone will get a project greenlighted, and since you're in such high demand, you need a pay or play because god knows you could be doing something else. You know what? Blah blah blah. It's bullshit. The only thing that an actor should have a good payout on is if the box office blows wide open. He/She deserves a piece of the "back end" ( a portion of the gross revenue a film makes), for the work and the use of their image. Period. Everything else is just blowhard egotistical nonsense. (I don't mind y'all getting millions, especially on big money shoots like a Michael Bay epic or something. But after a $10 million paycheck, how can you justify being paid so much? Seriously. No, I mean SERIOUSLY.)
All the actors in this film were completely no-name random folks, and you know what? They ROCKED it. I LOVED that they were styled realistically, like regular people and not all glammed up like movie stars, I loved that they got slimed in goo and dirt and didn't have a manicure at the same time. I loved their wrinkles and their weird teeth and accents and odd little personal idiosyncacies. Most of all, I loved that they were GOOD. Not just good, but REALLY GOOD. Wholly believable and committed and in the moment. Which just goes to show you: we all love our movie stars for escapism and glamour and a glimpse of unattainable beauty. No doubt. But a character actor will rise to the job 110% , without it, and doesn't that say something? I think so.
Finally, I loved that there was love, attachment ( Christopher to his son, Minkus to his wife) and honest raw emotion, with hardly a maudlin moment to find. Here you are, really rooting for the control pod to make it to the mothership, and watching the son ask, "We go home now?" but it's not at all sappy or contrived. I thought to myself, "I'll be Steven Speilberg is kicking himself in the pants right now", since a movie like this ( after "ET" and "War of the Worlds") would be something he'd like to get his hands on, I'll bet. But I'm glad he didn't. It would have been ruined with sap and orchestrated sentiment. So hooray for showing REAL feeling without telling the audience HOW to feel about it. It's good to let them figure out for themselves, don't you think? ( When I was in art school, I was in critique once for one of my pieces and I was worrying aloud that the audience might not "get it" if I didn't include more detail. A peer who was normally very reserved replied thoughtfully, "You can't do all the work for them. Otherwise, what's the point? Leave them some room to make their own conclusions. It's more interesting and beneficial that way." Truer words never spoken.).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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So yeah. Don't miss out on the movie my brilliant sibling called "The most influential film of this genre since "The Matrix". No matter who you are, I PROMISE you won't regret it.
posted by Jessica @ 12:41 AM
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