This summer has only offered up mild escapist pleasures (“Star Trek” here, “Harry Potter” there) and up until now hasn’t offered a movie, like “The Dark Knight” last summer, that we’ll actually be talking about in a few months time (please, “Up” doesn’t count and while “Transformers 2” is the most popular movie of the summer by far, it’s also the one with the shortest shelf life. Can anyone honestly ever imagine revisiting this thing, even when flipping through cable channels?) This summer’s crop of movies will evaporate from memory before the films’ subsequent home video editions are released.
Except, there’s this little $30 million feature opening his weekend, independently financed (released by Sony’s Tri-Star division), featuring zero stars and directed by a first-time feature filmmaker (Neill Blomkamp, formerly of the doomed, Alex Garland-penned “Halo” adaptation). And it’s so ballsy, so brilliant, so brightly imaginative, that it just may be the best summer movie so far. The movie is “District 9,” and, like last week’s Entertainment Weekly cover suggests, it will, indeed, blow your fucking mind.
The teasers and trailers for this baby have kept things tightly under wraps, and we’re not going to spoil anything the day of its release, so we’ll keep things simple: in an alternate history version of South Africa, a “shipwrecked” alien spacecraft hovers over Johannesburg and an influx of refugees (aliens) have unintentionally been stranded on the planet. The ship’s occupants, bipedal crustaceans the locals derogatorily refer to as “Prawns,” have nowhere to go, and the diaspora is forced into a temporary living situation that quickly devolves into favella-like slums replete with brutal living conditions. The internment camp of (literally) illegal aliens becomes the cultural focal point by the government, the politicians, the media, human rights groups, conspiracy theorists, you name it.
As the movie begins, we’re on the cusp of a giant relocation program, with the South African government in conjunction with a shady private organization called Multi-National United (MNU) repositioning the prawns to a distant outpost, far outside the city limits. We follow, documentary-style, as a grossly under-qualified (but well intentioned) MNU stooge named Wikus (newcomer Sharlto Copley, in a pitch-perfect performance of halfwit bureaucrat/unintentional hero) attempts to peacefully excommunicate the creatures, while contending with Nigerian gangsters, who have infiltrated and proliferated inside the slums, to take full advantage of the displaced extra-terrestrials. Making the protagonist of a summer sci-fi extravaganza a bumbling nerd in the vein of Ricky Gervais’ David Brent is one of the film’s many ingenious fine touches.
From there, the movie takes so many loopy, unexpected detours that spoiling anything else would be unwise to anyone hoping to enjoy the movie fresh. You’ll never know what’s going to happen fifteen minutes down the line. So, that’s all the synopsis you get.
What really enriches the entire enterprise is its keen sense of socio-political awareness. From George A. Romero’s zombie films (the next one, “Survival of the Dead” premieres at Toronto next month) to Paul Verhoeven’s misunderstood “Starship Troopers” to last year’s post-9/11 monster mash “Cloverfield” (which this film only bears a passing resemblance to), genre movies have been a gateway to comment on and make fun of current social angst. Here, the situation with the aliens is very obviously a stand-in for apartheid, but also intolerance, racism, xenophobia, prejudice and cultural clashes on a global whole (think land and race issues that have affected Africa in recent years and the ugly genocides that have risen in their wake).
It’s obvious, but it also don’t hammer you over the head either, nor dull its emotional impact, and there are other things the movie is touching on. MNU is kind of a stand-in for Halliburton, with its militaristic unit eerily similar to the Blackwater private military group. (When a sci-fi movie is bringing to mind “No End In Sight” instead of “Independence Day,” you know you’re watching something special.) In addition, the relocation camp, with its cheap white facades, looks a lot like the temporary housing of displaced Katrina refugees.
The social commentary (with shades of the Middle Eastern conflict as well) is something you’re aware of but never takes you out of the immediacy and intensity of the story. And if you don’t pick up on it, it’s not going to ruin the movie for you. There’s still tons of kinetic, visual effects and monsters and stuff, but it’s those socio-political undertones that make it way more than just your run-of-the-mill bang-zip space opera.
It boils down to this: there’s sci-fi (generally cheap and forgettable these days) and there’s dystopian drama (a rarefied breed, you seem to never see anymore) inspired by the likes of Huxley, Orwell, Asimov and K. Dick, and this picture seamlessly melds those two genres which have somehow grown apart from one another.
Blomkamp is going to be a director to watch. Rarely do you get to see such an assured debut, especially one with mammoth visual effects challenges and a fine tonal line to walk. There’s not a moment where you don’t think that those aliens are real, and the drama is just as gripping as anything in a “serious” film. Even more impressive is the way that “District 9” motors along, appropriating footage as it goes (the initial documentary footage, talking head interviews, television news reportage, security cameras). This kind of editorial prowess is amazing, and combined with his Spielberg-ian touch (there’s definitely a little bit of “E.T.” mixed in to all the chaos) Blomkamp has ended up with a whip-smart, convincing, totally new, breathlessly paced sci-fi spectacle. We’d call it a visionary work of modern genre genius if it didn’t sound so hyperbolic, but, well, we’ll go ahead and call it that anyway. [A] – Drew Taylor
Seems like an interesting movie but I don't find this to be so wildly original. There seem to be so many similarities with movie Alien Nation and its sequels that I thought District 9 to be its remake. For example – big alien ship stranded on Earth and unable to leave, aliens assimiliated to human society, discrimination against aliens that is comparable with racism against minorities and immigrants in human society. So neither the storyline or concept seems to be new.
it is a good movie. period. but i fail to see the much praised originality. since actually its derivativeness is what gives it its punch – just the way blomkamp has assimilated all kinds of influences – "e.t.", "robocop", "starship troopers" and "the fly" being the most obvious (and didn't you get a slight "brazil"-vibe from it?). blomkamp's intelligence lies in the way he works said influences in the fabric of his film. but is it an intelligent or original story itself? naah, not really. the whole pseudo documentary setup is just so yesterday's news. i guess it was cool (and worked to its advantage) the first times around, "henry" using video-footage, "man bites dog" being arranged as a docu, "blair witch project" going one step further. but ever since "cloverfield" (zzz!) i feel the attempt to make a movie seem "authentic" and "real" just backfires at this point. it doesn't draw you into the proceedings anymore, it distances you from what you see. though well made in "district 9", i found it a little tiring and lazy and, well, the opposite of original. though there's no explanation why blomkamp switches to a more classical approach in the second half of the film, that half is so much more better and convincing – and a much better showcase of blomkamp's obvious talent. but didn't the whole township-scenario leave a slight bitter aftertaste with you? i know it's meant as a critique, but i felt the whole aliens-as-blacks-as-insects just the slightest bit proto-fascistic (and not in a good verhoeven kind of way). anyway, a good film, nonetheless, but not really the savior of a subpar movie summer.
thomas
brazil? original?.. you know there is this writer called george orwell who penned this great little story called 1984 and it is kinda regarded as a classic.
and you thinking the aliens as blacks is just.. wierd.
and a bit racist.
@anon, re: racism, read any Neill Blomkamp interview in the last 3 months. It's not racism on our part at all. Try and inform yourself.