District 9
2009
****
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, Louis Minnaa, Mandla Gaduka, Vanessa Haywood
Some 20 years after a massive spaceship arrived over Johannesburg, the aliens on board are segregated in the slums of District 9. Things come to a head when the government operative in charge of relocating the population is exposed to foreign substance. This inventive and unpredictable but occasionally overwhelming South African science fiction comedy is clearly an allegory on apartheid, but it's too busy creating anarchic fun to rub our faces in it. The story is framed as a mockumentary and it inevitably ends in a big gunfight, but even that is freshly done. The special effects are wonderfully gritty and realistic, and they never call attention to themselves. Expanded from Blomkamp's 2005 short film Alive in Joburg.
