NINE DAYS (A) - This glum but utterly enlightened story follows sullen Will , a onetime earthbound human who now, in his afterlife, vets purgatorial souls hoping to get chosen to life a full human existence and then follows their lives on old-fashioned TV screens and videotapes. When one of the people he once chose and has been monitoring commits suicide, Will, over nine days, interviews about a half dozen souls competing to take the new spot opened up by Amanda.
Will (Winston Duke) has a special connection to Amanda, because, as a child, she name-checked him as her imaginary friend. Will also had a troubled time on Earth, so he can commiserate. He is unshakeable in his task at hand -- picking one lucky candidate for life's sweepstakes and telling the others that their time has ended. Like with a game show, though, the losers get a parting gift -- after spending a few days watching the 24 or so lives unfold on Will's TV screens, they can pick one life-event that he'll re-create for them, so they can get just a sip of what they'll miss out on. The wishes are as simple as walking on a beach or riding a bike.
It sounds like a complicated set-up, but part of the brilliance here -- borrowed from other thought experiments, such as Shane Carruth's "Primer" and "Upstream Color" -- is the commitment to an idea and following it through to a logical conclusion. Newcomer Edson Oda (writer and director) creates a cramped world set mostly in Will's apartment. His characters are fully formed, including Will's sidekick (neither boss nor assistant) Kyo (Benedict Wong) and last-minute entrant Emma (Zazie Beetz, sporting what can only be called an afro'd Ed Grimley hairstyle), who establishes a strong connection to Will and is the only one who gets to observe the inner workings of his operation. Tony Hale (TV's "Veep" and "Arrested Development") plays a sort of sad clown whose bid seems hopeless.
The brilliance here lies in Oda's incredible command of the story and his attention to detail (Will's operation, all old-school analog, involves a lot of paper forms and filing cabinets along with the videotapes). The dialogue is succinct and crisp. Will's back story unfolds meticulously over the tight two-hour run time. His final scene with Emma is one for the ages, a cap to a powerful, restrained performance by Duke ("Us," "Black Panther"), who carries this movie on his broad but sagging shoulders. It would be difficult to not be moved by this special team effort.
FULLY REALIZED HUMANS (B) - More of an acting exercise than a movie, this endearing relationship romp borrows the best and the worst of Joe Swanberg in his Mumblecore heyday. Jess Weixler (TV's "The Good Wife") and Joshua Leonard ("Humpday") play Jackie and Elliot, a couple who are a month away from the birth of their first child and realizing that time is short to suddenly become well-rounded people worthy of the title "parent." They seek to correct the mistakes of her dad (a prescription-drug addict) and his parents (abusive dad, co-dependent mom) by stretching their perceptions of themselves.
This plays out in unexpected ways. First, Jackie cows Elliot into accepting the idea that they both would benefit from her strapping one on and pegging her husband. Things unravel from there, as Elliot delves into his old emotional scars emanating from his father's homophobic belligerence.
Your appreciation of this mostly ad-libbed adventure -- at turns funny and touching -- will depend on your patience for post-Mumblecore sloppiness and indulgence. Juilliard-trained Weixler -- who genuinely looks eight months pregnant (she did have a daughter in 2019) -- is an endearing performer, and she and Leonard click as a couple, each generous with the other as improv performers (with key support from a couple of cameos by Janicza Bravo of "Zola" and Erica Chidi Cohen). But this one feels like a bit of a throwaway until the final reel, when Jackie and Elliot confront their three parents, and then the film sizzles with sharp dialogue. Credit to the the three older actors -- Beth Grant, Tom Bower and Michael Chieffo -- for grabbing this thing by the collar, with some sharp lessons for our entitled millennials, and rescuing the film in the end.
NORTH BY CURRENT (B+) - Yet another moody tone-poem of a documentary, here we follow Angelo Madsen Minax as he chronicles a few years with his Mormon family in the wake of the tragic death of his sister's daughter, which may or may not have been the result of household abuse. It is a way for Minax, born as a girl named Angela, to reconcile his own identity as a son, sibling and storyteller.
Minax creates an experimental visual and sound collage that sweeps you up in the swirl of family history in rural, often snowy Michigan. Critically, this personal essay never forgets to draw the viewer into a compelling narrative. He uses a disembodied child's voice (his own?) as a sort of conscience or spirit-animal guide while flashing through images as if his brain were firing across synapses. This is a style that calls to mind such sociological and historical experiments as "Truth or Consequences," "Malni," "Dawson City: Frozen Time" and "Stories We Tell."
Minax's grieving sister responds to the death of her daughter by having a new child every year for three years running. Meantime, she is in denial about her drug addiction and what's really going on with her partner, who was a suspect in the 2013 death of the child. Circling around this are Minax's fundamentalist parents, still struggling with his gender identity. As the filmmaker searches for truths and acceptance, it's hard not to be moved by this PBS "POV" offering.
BONUS TRACKS
"Nine Days" has a lovely soundtrack, centered on the recurring violin piece that Amanda plays at a concert, a heart-breaking collection of melodies by Antonio Pinto. Here is a sample:
"North by Current" is boosted by music from Julien Baker, including "Sprained Ankle":
The "North by Current" soundtrack also features the Waterboys' anthemic "This is the Sea":
... and Michael Beauchamp's jangly romp "Gamble-Drink All My Money":
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