we don't know what version of history - past and present - neil blomkamp and his team of writers feed on. clearly its the same acid laced cat-food contraband their alien creations in district 9 seem to love. district 9, aka the current #1 box office hit in the us, is a nearly 2 hour flick which preaches well but forgets to feed us the sermon. okay quickly, there are these aliens, who become marooned above the joburg skyline, and they cant make their way home. these cats are filthy, and they get high off cat food, seriously. they are dirty, like the nigerians (more on that later...) and really nobody wants them around. so yes, the film oozes with reliable and easy metaphors and perhaps yes, the joburg setting was relevant in that respect.
the film is technically superb, the documentary shooting style and narrative allows the film to get away with more self consciousness than would be ordinarily allowed. the narrative on the other hand seems dishonest, insincere...it FEELS like it was written by a white guy with more middle class white guilt than he knows what to do with (apologies to km, i know you're a regular reader, thanks for use of your words here..). the writers try to cover all their bases on the major social issues of our time, for instance, the combining of the apartheid narrative and the xenophobic narrative was quite frankly lazy, dishonest. i understand the need to make the story accessible, and to package it into neatly outlined, morally unambiguous boxes, but really?!!? now about the nigerians, well they do what nigerians do, right? right? errr, right? they trade in contraband, sell sex and guns on the side, and display a fucked up version of cannibalism...jahwellnofine. this movie will clearly work for some, it didn't work for us, too easy, too easy, if you're going to raise an argument and get all deep and philosophical, make sure there's a punchline at least
i think you calling this movie wrong. i thought it was brilliant, technically and the narrative. i can (almost) understand why (white)south africans could find the movie uncomfortable, but hey,we all have our histories
ReplyDeletewhat a superb movie, i loved its style, that documentary type style. interesting comment about the style allowing the film to be more self conscious than would be ordinarily allowed. very interesting comment, i think to a degree you're right, but are you implying that its a lazy way of making this type of film?
ReplyDeletei agree with your review, the narrative got lost on me, not sure what the message was, and maybe its not necessary for there to be a message i dont know. but call me old fashion, i want my films to have a well defined narrative, a theme if you will. like what do i walk away with when all is said and done. the film relies too strongly on cliches to get its messages accross. like people are supposed to gather the message from all the sociall laden symbolism contained in the film. so i dont know so much
ReplyDeletewe thought we would get more. at least neil is getting paid, and there are no foriegn actors doing violence to the very distinct south african accent. anonymous et al, please remember we are allowed to disagree.
ReplyDeleteizzit, i think that the film's shooting style lends itself well to the feel of the film. but there's a thin line between lazy and that doccie type style of shooting. some people get it right others get it wrong. to be fair i think they got it right in d 9.
this is such a bullshit review, it says more about the chip that exists on the writers' shoulders than it does about the quality of this flick. fuck you very much
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