Nine Days trailer shows the complicated interview process for rebirth

Imagine you could apply for the life you want rather than the one you’re born into. Would you still choose the life you ended up with or would you like the opportunity to push the reset button? One where you could perhaps afford the things you wanted and perhaps not be genetically predisposed to suck at sports or the arts. Or worse, land up like Darryn (Editor’s note: Jebus Craig).

That is the deep and meaningful question asked by the new existential fantasy drama Nine Days, that stars Winston Duke as a recluse named Will who spends his time watching people’s lives through their TVs until they die and leave an opening for a new person on Earth.

He’s then tasked with interviewing and selecting unborn souls who are candidates to be born as new humans, a process that takes nine days. An important job if there ever was one and definitely the person, I should’ve bribed a long time ago. However, after meeting one of his free-spirited candidates named Emma (Zazie Beetz), Will is forced to come to terms with his existence and determine how his troubling past will dictate his future. 

It sounds like an incredibly deep and trippy film thatsI right up my alley, which is why finally having a trailer for it excites me so much:

I’m a massive fan of smart films that leave me thinking for days after having watched them, and this certainly looks like one of those movies that could do that. The trailer plays out a little slow, which is perhaps my biggest concern that the film may land up being a little too pretentious, but I will probably watch this anyway just based on the thought-provoking premise alone. That it has a great supporting cast that includes Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong,  Tony Hale, Geraldine Hughes, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz only makes it even better.

Nine Days marks the feature film debut of Edson Oda, who also wrote the script. The film reportedly received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and earned Oda a Screenwriting Award, so the odds certainly seemed stacked in the favour of this film being one to watch and Oda a filmmaker to look out for.  

Nine Days is scheduled for release in the US on January 27, though that date is likely to change. This is the kind of movie that could actually work well for streaming or On Demand as it doesn’t necessarily require a big screen and the comfort of home is the perfect place to just sit there and contemplate on what you’ve just watched.

Last Updated: October 14, 2020