Nine Days is the sort of original cinematic art that, these days, is few and far between.

Edson Oda’s script is incredible. It asks so many philosophical questions without being preachy or pedantic. It successfully reminds us how precious all of our lives are, which is no small feat.

Nine Days is that rare work of art that invites you to re-consider your entire worldview.

Great science-fiction storytelling is not going to come from the big studios anymore. We will find it from new filmmakers with big ideas and very little money. But thankfully, big ideas attract big talent (then hopefully big money), and that’s what we have with Edson Oda’s Nine Days.

All in all, Nine Days is a stellar feature debut, with strong filmmaking, from its assured compositions to its superb dimly lit frames, where shafts of outside light or wall lamps illuminate slivers of the sets. And Winston Duke, who appears in just about every scene in the film, offers a complex portrait of a wounded man.