District 9

I saw an impressive film last night, easily the best movie I've seen in a while, that captured me with its creative film style, superb acting, and powerful message--the incredibly low budget film District 9. This movie, produced by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, was made for half the budget of this summer's Adam Sandler comedy "Funny People" and for 5 million less than the low budget hit "The Hang Over" and yet had effects that were far more natural and impressive than the cheese-ball Transformers movies and featured actors who, while new and not yet famous, were compelling, engaging, and natural. When the movie came to a close and the credits began to roll, my friends and the audience I was sitting with while watching the film, sat for a moment in stunned silence only to break that quiet with accolates for how impressed they all were. On the surface, the film's premise seems absurd, but it is told in such a creative fashion and the characters, plot twists, and tensions are so interesting that the film ultimately succeeds in a big way.

The movie opens with documentary-style interviews, filling in viewers of the backstory: twenty years ago an alien ship loses an essential piece of equipment, becomes stranded over the South African city of Johannesburg and, after no aliens come out of the ship, military fly up to the ship, break in and find alien beings malnurished, leaderless, and scared. Initially these aliens are housed in a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9, but soon, due to overcrowding and militarization, this area becomes a shanty town slum and the creatures, derogatorily name "prawns" by the rest of the world, are viewed as a nuisance and a danger. As a result, the private company Multinational United (MNU), which specializes in weapons research and security subcontracting, was assigned to govern the area. I know -- odd concept for a film, huh? This is all introduced in the first few minutes of the film.

The movie then takes a turn as it follows an awkward and geeky MNU field operative named Wikus van der Merwe who is assigned to lead a team to evict and move the 1.8 million aliens to a new "District 10" camp located 240 km from Johannesburg. As he and others interact with these creatures, you see their apathy, indifference, and prejudice, but, as the film ensues and complications erupt, Wikus goes through an identity crisis and is thrust into a unique position to change the world.

Beyond the sheer fun of the film, one thing that struck me was how this movie communicated a powerful message about the evils of discrimination in a far more effective way than films like those of Spike Lee could. While Spike Lee's films have been critically acclaimed for their power to speak about discrimination, often the people who see those films already agree with his point of view--he's preaching to the choir, so to speak. This movie, however, has a much larger and diverse audience and has the opportunity to communicate the evils of prejudice in a creative and unexpected way to those who really need to hear it.

Other critics have been ecstatic and have raved about this film. I found some reviews on Wikipedia: "Sara Vilkomerson of The New York Observer writes, 'District 9 is the most exciting science fiction movie to come along in ages; definitely the most thrilling film of the summer; and quite possibly the best film I've seen all year.' Christy Lemire from the Associated Press was impressed by the plot and thematic content, claiming that 'District 9 has the aesthetic trappings of science fiction but it's really more of a character drama, an examination of how a man responds when he's forced to confront his identity during extraordinary circumstances.' Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum described it as '...madly original, cheekily political, [and] altogether exciting...'"

If you get an opportunity, see this movie -- you won't be disappointed.