Nine Days

In addition to a stunning performance from Zazie Beetz, Nine Days also features Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, and Bill Skarsgård.

Nine Days is, in its subdued way, a profound and powerful commentary on life.

Although arguably a smidge too ponderous and self-serious for its own good, Nine Days still represents a reasonably promising debut for its writer-director Edson Oda.

The rewards are great for viewers who can go with the movie's bold concept.

Oda, making an auspicious feature debut, has devised a deliberately stagy - yet surprisingly effective - device to make his point: Life should not be taken for granted.

Pretentious and obnoxious.

Questions of heaven and hell, souls, and humanity have been posited since the first narrative films were created. It’s well trod territory, but Edson Oda’s Nine Days has a perspective that is lacking from all that came before it.

Despite its many imperfections, including feeling more like a play in the way that the characters interact, “Nine Days” works because it manages to convey abstract concepts of joy in existing, loss, pain, and death.

A unique concept captured by Edson Oda, the film is led by a fantastic performance from Winston Duke and beautifully captures the idea of life.

Seen through the eyes of five souls competing to be born, Nine Days is a poignant analysis of existence that reminds us of what makes life worth living.