The revolving door of films coming to and leaving Netflix can be a real pain. I’ve often had a cool film pop up in my recommended list, but when I finally settle down to watch it I find that it’s already left the service. Fortunately, there’s a big upside: when a beloved but maybe slightly forgotten movie appears on the streaming service it gets another moment in the spotlight. Today it’s the turn of one of the best science fiction movies of the 2000s: Neill Blomkamp’s District 9.
This is an action-packed body horror parable inspired by historical events in apartheid-era South Africa. The opening of the movie establishes that aliens have arrived on Earth, parking a giant spaceship over Johannesburg. In an ordinary film, the aliens would uplift us with new technology or simply invade, but here they’re more like refugees seeking sanctuary. This setup is used as the launchpad for a bizarre story in which our hero Sharlto Copley begins to mutate into one of the aliens.
It received extremely positive reviews on its release, going on to be nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture), seven BAFTAs and one Golden Globe. From a 2020 perspective, its themes are no less relevant than they were 11 years ago, so I’ll certainly be revisiting it this weekend.
Neill Blomkamp was instantly tipped as a rising star in Hollywood, though has failed to recapture the success of District 9. I was a big fan of both Elysium and Chappie, but neither movie did well at the box office, with Chappie in particular bombing hard. That failure probably contributed to Neill Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel and his RoboCop Returns not going ahead.
He’s is now working on Archon, which is about a cop possessed by a demon. That was due to shoot in March, though I imagine the COVID-19 restrictions have delayed that for the foreseeable future.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/3bAs5Xw
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