Time: 124 Minutes
Cast:
Winston Duke as Will
Zazie Beetz as Emma
Benedict Wong as Kyo
Tony Hale as Alexander
Bill Skarsgård as Kane
David Rysdahl as Mike
Arianna Ortiz as Maria
Director: Edson Oda

A man interviews five unborn souls to determine which one should be given a new life on Earth, with the unchosen ones facing oblivion.

I decided to watch Nine Days after hearing great things about it from its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and I’m glad I did.  

Nine Days has a unique, but simple premise. Winston Duke’s character works to determine which soul gets to incarnate on Earth and experience life, and those who must simply vanish into oblivion. Much of this movie’s plot focusses on him deciding between a group of possible incarnations. It starts off a bit slow and requires you to be patient until you grasp what is happening, but it really picks up by the end of the first act. A lot of it focuses on one-on-one character interactions, they are riveting with some greatly written dialogue. As expected, given the concept, the movie is very existential and thought provoking as it raises plenty of philosophical questions and existential. It concludes with a great and emotionally satisfying final scene.

There is a wonderful ensemble of actors which really make the movie. This is really Winston Duke’s showcase, and he gives a powerfully controlled performance, the best I’ve seen from him. I’d like to see him lead more movies. The rest of the cast including Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard and Zazie Beetz are particularly fantastic.

This is a really good debut movie from director Edson Oda. The cinematography is stunning and beautifully lit, and the score from Antonio Pinto is also really nice and accompanies the movie well.

Nine Days is an original, hypnotic, thought provoking, beautiful and emotional film about existence, life, and death, that’s directed, written and performed excellently. I recommend checking this out.