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Sci-fi has been used to talk about real world problems forever. Underneath the aliens and spaceships in DISTRICT 9 is a comment on refugees and their awful living conditions. Director/co-writer Neill Blomkamp is from South Africa and has based this film on his short film ALIVE IN JOBURG. Mixing mockumentary footage, horror, and an odd couple adventure, this sci-fi actioner becomes great smart entertainment.

An alien mother ship has come to a stall over Johannesberg, South Africa. For 20 years, the alien inhabitants have been quarantined in a slum called District 9. The citizens are tired of having these “prawns” living in their city. Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a middle management crony for Multi-Nation United, the conglomerate assigned to move the million plus aliens to a new refugee camp outside the city. He looks down on the aliens and is eager to find any illegal activity while he serves them eviction notices. In his search of one of the shacks, he finds a vile that explodes in his face. The biotechnology in the canister is key to the aliens’ biologically controlled weapons. When exposed to the substance inside, Wikus begins to transform into one of the aliens.
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One thing that most Hayao Miyazaki films have in common is joy. This G-rated fantasy is overflowing with it. And it’s a special type of joy – the joy of discovery. A little boy discovers a goldfish. Then that goldfish discovers what its like to be human.

Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) finds the goldfish in the sea and names her Ponyo (Noah Lindsey Cyrus). He keeps her in his bucket and cares for her, smuggling her to school with him even. What he doesn’t know is that this goldfish is the daughter of Fujimoto (Liam Neeson, TAKEN), a human set with the mystical job of keeping balance in the sea, and her mother Gran Mamare (Cate Blanchett, THE AVIATOR), the goddess of the sea. Ponyo’s real name is Brunnhilde, but she doesn’t want that name nor does she want to be a goldfish.
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Sometimes the best sci-fi stories hinge on how they use their central premise. How they use it as a metaphor for common experiences, which puts those experiences into a new focus. Director Robert Schwentke’s adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s popular novel does just that. Having not read the book, I must compliment screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin for taking what Niffenegger created and bringing it to the screen in a fascinating way. The sign of a good adaptation is making the audience want to read the score material. THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE will be the next book I buy.

Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana, HULK) has a genetic disorder where he randomly travels through time. Where he ends up and how long he is gone is never the same. The first time he traveled was when he was six — the day his mother Annette (Michelle Nolden, TV’s NUMB3RS) died. Growing up, he was very lonely with his father Richard (Arliss Howard, AMISTAD) sinking into alcoholism. Then Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams, THE NOTEBOOK) walks into the library where he works and looks at him like she’s been reunited with her long lost husband. Turns out he’s been visiting her since she was a child.
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