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Movie Review | 'Nine'

There Will Be Lingerie (Singing, Too)

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By A.O. Scott

Dec. 17, 2009

“My husband makes movies,” sings Marion Cotillard, with upswept Audrey Hepburn hair and an air of resignation. We’ll have to take her word for it, since the husband in question played in a whirl of smoking, shrugging and bravura suit wearing by Daniel Day-Lewis seems to be busily doing everything but that. His name is Guido, and while his co-workers and admirers call him Maestro, his mastery is purely notional. He made some great films in the past, apparently, but now, in Rome in the mid-1960s, he finds himself in a professional and personal tailspin just as his new project, the vague-sounding epic “Italia,” is about to commence shooting.

“I can’t make this movie,” he sings. Substitute “watch” for “make” and provide your own music. “Nine,” directed by Rob Marshall (“Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha”) from the Broadway musical (first staged in 1982 and revived in 2003), is a movie about creative blockage and sexual confusion, but not quite in the way it wants to be. Straining to capture artistic frenzy, it descends into vulgar chaos, less a homage to Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” (its putative inspiration) than a travesty.

The theatrical version was built around a single set half soundstage, half cathouse and a handful of musically serviceable, lyrically grueling songs by Maury Yeston. The movie, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, who died in 2008, adds some new numbers and opens up the scenery and the story, taking Guido and his women into the streets of Rome, to a spa on the coast nearby and into flashbacks evocative of other Fellini movies. Mr. Marshall even touches down at Cinecittà’s Studio 5, where the real maestro plied his hectic trade.

Occasionally a flicker of genuine style emerges from all this busy, gaudy fuss. Mr. Day-Lewis does not overdo the Italian-ness, and the sardonic smile playing around his mouth may be a sign of what he thinks of it all. Ms. Cotillard attains a measure of wounded dignity as Louisa, Guido’s former leading lady and much-betrayed wife. She is not spared the striptease obligations that fall to every other female character, but at least her big song is not splintered by the clumsy, mechanical cross-cutting that seems to be Mr. Marshall’s attempt to fuse choreographic energy with cinematic brio.

None of the rest of Guido’s ladies are so lucky. It must be said that “Nine” is an impressive feat of casting, with a shocking number of Oscar winners and nominees assembled in the service of its dubious and incoherent cause. Judi Dench is Guido’s costume designer and confidante. Penélope Cruz is his mistress, Carla, a married woman with serious mascara issues. Nicole Kidman is a Nordic actress meant to conjure memories of Anita Ekberg, though sadly she does not walk around with a kitten on her head. Sophia Loren is Guido’s Mamma, and Kate Hudson is a Vogue reporter who flings herself in his direction.

Stacy Ferguson, known to pop-music fans as Fergie, is Saraghina, the village prostitute who provides the boy Guido with a glimpse of forbidden pleasures. Nice for him. The rest of us watch Ms. Ferguson stomp and gyrate through a number called “Be Italian,” which, like so much else in “Nine,” resembles a spread in a Victoria’s Secret catalog, only less tasteful. Ms. Hudson, for her part, struts through an embarrassing hymn to “Cinema Italiano” with inane lyrics about “hip coffee bars” and Guido’s “neo-realism” that recalls not Visconti or Antonioni (or even the Italian sex farces of the 1970s) but rather those lubricious Berlusconi-esque variety shows that baffle and titillate visitors from other countries who turn on their hotel-room television sets.

Those spectacles at least come by their sleaze honestly. “Nine” dresses up its coarseness in bogus prestige, which both kills the fun and exposes an emptiness at the project’s heart a fatal lack of inspiration. The fear of such a void is what animates the Guido character played by Marcello Mastroianni in “8 ½,” a man whose vanity, tenderness and narcissism mirrored Fellini’s own, and whose anxiety at the prospect of failing as an artist and a man made him a vivid and credible hero. That psychological dimension is missing from “Nine,” which never finds a way to communicate either the romantic ardor or the artistic passion that would make Mr. Day-Lewis’s Guido interesting.

Instead he just comes off as a jerk, a compulsive liar and seeker of attention and, in spite of the sports cars, the cigarettes and the occasional run-in with the Roman Catholic Church, not really very Italian at all. The best that can be said about “Nine” is that its affections are sincere, though you could say the same about its hero, who has the misfortune of being in a movie that’s an even worse mess than he is.

“Nine” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Lingerie and cigarettes, but no real heat.

Opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by Rob Marshall; written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, based on the book for the musical “Nine” by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, adapted from the Federico Fellini film “8 ½”; director of photography, Dion Beebe; choreography by Mr. Marshall and John DeLuca; production designer, John Myhre; produced by Mr. Marshall, Mr. DeLuca, Marc Platt and Harvey Weinstein; released by the Weinstein Company. In Manhattan at the Ziegfeld Theater, 141 West 54th Street. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes.

WITH: Daniel Day-Lewis (Guido Contini), Marion Cotillard (Luisa), Penélope Cruz (Carla), Judi Dench (Lilli), Stacy Ferguson (Saraghina), Kate Hudson (Stephanie), Nicole Kidman (Claudia) and Sophia Loren (Mamma).

Rag-doll apocalypse

#9, the hero of "9."

The first images are spellbinding. In close-up, thick fingers make the final stitches in a roughly humanoid little rag doll, and binocular eyes are added. This creature comes to life, walks on tottering legs, and ventures fearfully into the devastation of a bombed-out cityscape.

This visionary world was first created as a short subject by Shane Acker , a student at UCLA, and was nominated for a 2006 Oscar. At the time I found it “an atmosphere of creeping, crashing, menace… elaborated as a game of hide and seek, beautifully animated and intriguingly unwholesome.” So it is still, as the first figure, named “9,” meets his similar predecessors #1 through #8, and they find themselves in battle against a Transformer-like red-eyed monster called the Beast.

One might question the purpose of devising a life form in a world otherwise without life, only to provide it with an enemy that wishes only to destroy it. The purpose, alas, is to create a pretext for a series of action scenes, an apocalyptic battle that is visually more interesting than, but as relentless as, similar all-action-all-the-time movies. This is a disappointment. Remembering the promise of his original short, I look forward to what Acker would do at feature length, especially with a producer like Tim Burton to watch his back.

The characters look similar, but easy enough to tell apart, not least because they have their numbers stitched on their backs. They also have different visual characteristics, and are voiced by distinctive actors, including Christopher Plummer as their fearful leader, #1, and Jennifer Connolly as the token female #7. The usefulness of gender in a species without genitalia is not discussed, not even wistfully.

Nine is the youngest, probably the smartest, and certainly the most daring, leading the others, against #1’s wishes, to poke around the ruins. These look left over from a city from the past, not the future, and a 1940ish newsreel reports on a devastating global war triggered by a Hitleresque dictator. Was the Beast left behind to wipe out any survivors, and assure final victory even in the absence of victors?

Such questions, I submit, are intriguing. But the dialog is mostly simplified Action Speak, with barked warnings and instructions and strategy debates of the most rudimentary kind. Since this movie is clearly targeted not at kiddies but at teens and up, is it now Hollywood theory that eloquence and intelligence are no longer useful in action dialogue?

One of the benefits of the pre-CGI era was that although action scenes might be manifestly artificial, they had to be composed of details that were visually intelligible. Modern CGI artists, intoxicated by their godlike command of imagery, get carried away and add confusing complexity. If I were pressed to provide the cops with a detailed description of the Beast, the best I could do would be: “You’ll know it when you see it. Also, it has a big glowing red eye.”

Contrast that to the enormous construction in Miyazaki’s “ Howl's Moving Castle .” It is awesomely complex, but I have a large print of one of Miyazaki’s still drawings from the film, and you can clearly see that it’s all there .

“9” is nevertheless worth seeing. It might have been an opportunity for the sort of challenging speculation sci-fi is best at, however, and the best reason to see it is simply because of the creativity of its visuals. They’re entrancing.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Elijah Wood as No. 9 (voice)
John C. Reilly as No. 5 (voice)
Martin Landau as No. 2 (voice)
Crispin Glover as No. 6 (voice)
Tom Kane as Dictator (voice)
Jennifer Connelly as No. 7 (voice)
Christopher Plummer as No. 1 (voice)
Helen Wilson as Newscaster (voice)
Alan Oppenheimer as Scientist (voice)
Fred Tatasciore as No. 8, Radio Announcer (voice)

Screenplay by

Marci Levine
Pamela Pettler

Directed by

Shane Acker

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Nine Reviews

There’s only so much machismo an audience can take

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 28, 2023

I adored this!

Full Review | Feb 20, 2022

Feels as if this filmmaker doesn't know a Fellini from a linguini.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 19, 2020

Nine cannot help but be a limp facsimile of a film that is so full of life and brio.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Oct 12, 2019

It's just so visually stunning and beautiful and different that I think that if you're an animation fan it's definitely one that you should have seen.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 13, 2019

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better cast in any film this year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 21, 2018

Day-Lewis shows a previously unseen penchant for song and dance. Cruz, though, is the real star turn with a very sexy number. But in parts it's flat, and some more melodrama or plot would not have gone amiss.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 4, 2018

It's a funny and not the least bit disingenuous moment that speaks to both the power of good storytelling to draw in people regardless of creed, and to the power glamor has over even the most ascetic individuals

Full Review | Oct 8, 2018

While Fellini pondered the possibilities of sin and redemption, Nine 's all-singing, all-dancing, all-laughing remake proffers a mindless celebration of capital S (as in silly ) sin.

Full Review | Aug 3, 2018

Though the film is uneven, it is worth seeing for the good parts. Daniel Day-Lewis does a credible job.

Full Review | Jan 16, 2018

Though it wasn't the best movie musical, Nine certainly had its moments.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Sep 11, 2017

A painfully formulaic message, trite dialogue, and a strangely episodic narrative structure that renders the whole thing exhausting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Apr 12, 2016

It's an over-the-top, eye-popping musical that doesn't completely satisfy, especially compared to it's original source classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 11, 2015

Largely, the numbers just sit on top of the dramatic action, adding little to our understanding of the characters and seldom contributing to the advancement of the story.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2014

What we get is a film that is close in story to Fellini's film, but which needed more time for its actresses and better music to make it all worthwhile.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 24, 2012

Day-Lewis, over-egging the angst as well as the Eye-talian accent, is charmless and insufferable. But the person you really want to slap is Marshall, whose brash directing style simply doesn't suit Nine's more whimsical charms.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 14, 2012

A migraine-inducing maelstrom.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

It has a lot to gnaw on, but it's worth gnawing on.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 11, 2011

Sensual musical about love and art has mature themes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 31, 2010

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Nine — film review.

The disappointments in "Nine" are many, from a starry cast the film ill uses to flat musical numbers that never fully integrate into the dramatic story. The only easy prediction is that "Nine" is not going to revive the slumbering musical film genre.

By Kirk Honeycutt , The Associated Press December 4, 2009 12:00am

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Any number of movies have served as the basis for stage musicals — even “Gone With the Wind” was bravely attempted, though with predictable results. But it’s fairly unusual and probably not a good idea to bring such musicals back into their original medium. One of the rare instances when it did work was Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria,” which turned into a Broadway tuner, “Sweet Charity” (by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields), and then became a pretty terrific Bob Fosse musical film. So understandably, the Weinstein Co. and a host of producers thought lightning might strike twice with Fellini’s ” 8 1/2,” which inspired the Tony-winning 1982 musical “Nine.” Lightning does not strike the same place twice.

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Nine Review

18 Dec 2009

117 minutes

After making the Oscar-winning, $300-million-making Chicago in 2002 and following up with the not-quite-so-popular Memoirs Of A Geisha, it perhaps comes as no surprise that Rob Marshall has returned to his musical wheelhouse for Nine, a 1982 Tony award-winning musical based on Federico Fellini’s Euro classic 8 1/2. As if to counter-balance the esoteric subject matter Marshal has assembled a stellar cast, seemingly designed to make poster designers scratch their heads trying to fit all the huge names in.

And, as you might expect, they all turn in excellent performances. Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis can sing, and dance, and even speak Italian (show-off), Kate Hudson is one hell of a dancer, Penelope Cruz can move in ways you never thought decent in a musical, Judi Dench can pull off a good tune, and Fergie (the Black Eyed Pea rather than the Duchess) absolutely nails the musical’s one guaranteed foot stomper, Be Italian. Oh, and Nicole Kidman can sing, but you knew that already.

But in amongst these first-rate turns there shines an even sparklier star in the form of Marion Cotillard, playing alienated wife Luisa to Day-Lewis’s charismatic yet uninspired film director, Guido. Enchanting and saddening in equal measure, Cotillard gracefully steals the show from under everyone’s noses, masterfully delivering the other two big numbers, the eye-watering ‘My Husband Makes Movies’ and the uncompromising belter Take It All.

Hudson’s Cinema Italiano also deserves a mention for injecting some pep into an otherwise sombre series of show tunes, brightening up the introspective mood that pervades as Guido falls out with his wife, mistress (Cruz) and muse (Kidman) in quick succession. Mid-life crises don’t lead to happy tunes, and adult themes of lust, infidelity, sexual maturity and the purpose of existence may leave the Mamma Mia! crowd somewhat perplexed.

Shooting and cutting his numbers like a dervish, Marshall undeniably has a gift in taking musical newcomers and making them shine. Yet his grip falters in its ambitious Fellini-esque time-shifting structure, the film awkwardly juggling black and white snapshots from Guido’s childhood with colourful musical numbers set on a huge stage.

Still, there’s tons to enjoy — the cool of ‘60s Rome is gorgeously evoked — and its desire to take the musical into different, more complex areas is to be applauded. And if it spawns further musical-art house crossovers — The Lives Of Others On Ice. Let The Right One Sing — then all the better.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 2 Reviews
Kids Say 5 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Sensual musical about love and art has mature themes.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Characters (all adults) smoke cigarettes often and drink socially at parties and

Frequent sexual situations, but no nudity or love scenes. Characters often discu

Not much swearing, though some characters do refer to each other as "ass" and "w

Some dance sequences feature aggressive movements, but the effect is more dramat

Any Positive Content?

A self-centered and self-indulgent film director careens through life, focusing

Guido is tortured by the creative spirit. His artistic impulses consume him, lea

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters (all adults) smoke cigarettes often and drink socially at parties and dinners.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Frequent sexual situations, but no nudity or love scenes. Characters often discuss sex and desire, and many of the dance sequences feature women in skimpy costumes performing suggestive movements. One song focuses exclusively on a woman's desire for her partner and includes very racy lyrics and sexy motions.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Not much swearing, though some characters do refer to each other as "ass" and "whore." Also a few uses of exclamations like "hell" and "my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Some dance sequences feature aggressive movements, but the effect is more dramatic than violent.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

A self-centered and self-indulgent film director careens through life, focusing all of his energies of the creative process and paying no attention to how his actions affect others, including his neglected wife, the mistress he takes for granted, and the many people involved in a major film project that can't move forward until he completes the script.

Positive Role Models

Guido is tortured by the creative spirit. His artistic impulses consume him, leaving him unable to manage the more mundane activities of his life, including remaining faithful to his wife or completing (or beginning, actually) the much-needed script for a major movie that's about to begin production. The film shows the dark side of genius and could make the life of an artist seem less than appealing to viewers who might otherwise harbor a bit of jealousy for such a glamorous lifestyle. On the up side, the movie features many strong female characters.

Parents need to know that this beautifully filmed, all-star musical from the director of Chicago (and based on Federico Fellini's classic, albeit mature, film 8 1/2 ) follows a tortured-genius film director ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) and his interactions with a series of women (played by the likes of Penelope Cruz , Nicole Kidman , Kate Hudson , and even Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas ) who've had an impact on his creative process. Though there's no actual sex or nudity, many of the songs focus on love, lust, and desire, and almost all of the dance numbers feature scantily clad dancers and suggestive lyrics/movements. There's also some smoking, drinking, and infrequent swearing. Younger viewers probably won't be able to fully appreciate the movie's mature themes related to relationships and creative challenges, but the cast may draw them in anyway. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (5)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Strippers, sex, strippers...

Howd it get a pg13, what's the story.

Celebrated film director Guido Contini ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) has everyone on tenterhooks waiting for his next tour de force, Italia . A set has been built at the famed Cinecitta Studios in Rome, and his cast and crew are awaiting a script. But Guido is struggling; haunted by the "ghosts" of women past, he can't create the masterpiece that everyone's expecting. His mind wanders to memories of his beloved Mamma ( Sophia Loren ); of the prostitute ( Fergie ) he knew as a child; of his muse, the actress Claudia ( Nicole Kidman ); of his costume designer ( Judi Dench ); of a Vogue reporter looking to seduce him ( Kate Hudson ); of his mistress, Carla ( Penelope Cruz ); and of his long-suffering wife, Luisa ( Marion Cotillard ). An escape to the countryside only complicates matters further when both Carla and Luisa converge to support him ... followed by paparazzi and journalists hungering to know more. Will Guido's new movie, his ninth (hence the film's title), be a hit? Or will it even be made at all?

Is It Any Good?

It's a little unclear how an Irish actor wound up playing a tortured Italian director, but how lucky the audience is for it. NINE features Day-Lewis as we've rarely seen him: whimsical, unpredictable, prone to both rage and passion. He may not be exactly like Fellini's hero in 8 1/2 (on which this movie is based) -- nor the Guido of the acclaimed Broadway musical -- but no matter: Day-Lewis makes the character mesmerizingly distressed. He's writer's block writ large.

Still, fans of both the Broadway version and Fellini's classic may be disappointed. Some songs have been excised, and Guido's women are, by and large, not that fascinating, at least not in this version. Hudson's reporter is a trifle (and not in a way that serves the character); Cruz, though smoldering, is over the top; Kidman is fleeting. Cotillard is the exception, singing with such feeling -- and acting that way, too. It's lovely to see Loren on the big screen again, and Dench also delivers as a jaded costume designer. Nine may not score a perfect 10, but with its rousing numbers and some strong performances, it successfully entertains.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about creativity. How does Guido try to jump-start the artistic process? How do his struggles affect the people around him? Does it work?

What do you think about Guido's romantic entanglements? How does his wife feel about his obvious infidelity? Does he care?

How does the movie portray its female characters?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 18, 2009
On DVD or streaming : May 4, 2010
Cast : Daniel Day-Lewis , Marion Cotillard , Nicole Kidman , Penelope Cruz
Director : Rob Marshall
Inclusion Information : Gay directors, Female actors
Studio : Weinstein Co.
Genre : Musical
Run time : 110 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : sexual content and smoking
Last updated : March 8, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

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Musicals for Kids

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Rob Marshall’s flawed but frequently dazzling Nine is a hot-blooded musical fantasia full of song, dance, raging emotion and simmering sexuality. We get to watch British acting dynamo Daniel Day-Lewis be Italian as Guido Contini, a genius director of the swinging Sixties (ciao, Federico Fellini) struggling to put the movie in his head up on the screen. That movie concerns the women in his life — mother (Sophia Loren), wife (Marion Cotillard), muse (Nicole Kidman), mistress (Penélope Cruz), reporter (Kate Hudson), colleague (Judi Dench) and whore (Fergie). With an indisputably gifted actor playing ringmaster to such feminine life force, what’s not to like? You could argue that Nine , a 1982 Broadway hit spun off from Fellini’s own 1963 psychodrama, 8 1/2 , and revived in 2003, was never the equal of its source. But Maury Yeston composed a score of surpassing beauty. The challenge for Marshall, following his Oscar-winning Chicago , was to bring another hallucinatory musical to the screen without repeating himself or dimming the material’s blazing, untamed theatricality.

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By my score card, Marshall hits more than he misses. Those who hated his music-video editing in Chicago will hate it here. He errs by cutting three great songs (“Getting Tall,” “Be On Your Own,” “The Bells of St. Sebastian”) for three inferior ones. “Cinema Italiano,” sung by Hudson, is a tacky, overproduced misfire. He also shortchanges the influence of Catholicism on this man-child, and keeps Guido’s nine-year-old alter ego too much in the shadows. Otherwise, his work is visionary and electric. And the script, by Michael Tolkin and the late, much missed Anthony Minghella, is uncommonly witty. Guido begins the film at a press conference telling reporters that to talk about a movie is to spoil its mystery. So I won’t intrude except to say that Day-Lewis (who replaced an exhausted Javier Bardem) handles his two songs in high style and acts the role like the maestro he is, even if he looks as Italian as Big Ben.

The women are smashing. Kidman tosses off her big number (“Unusual Way”), but Fergie sells hers (“Be Italian”). Dench is a sassy delight. Cruz does wonders as the mistress, sizzling in a rope dance (“Who’s afraid to kiss your toes, I’m not”) and going on to break your heart when Guido breaks hers. Best of all is Cotillard as the wife, baring her soul in “My Husband Makes Movies” and her body in a new number (“Take It All”) that lets her throw the bum out. Cotillard, beautiful and bruising all at once, is perfection. As Marshall gathers his cast together for a finale with cinematographer Dion Beebe, costume whiz Colleen Atwood and production designer John Myhre working at their highest capacity, Nine fires on all cylinders. As Guido sings, “What’s a good thing for if not taking it to excess?” Prego .

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Nine (2009)

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Action/Adventure , Animation , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

September 9, 2009
Voices of Elijah Wood as 9; Christopher Plummer as 1; Jennifer Connelly as 7; John C. Reilly as 5; Martin Landau as 2

Home Release Date

December 29, 2009
Shane Acker

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Focus Features

Movie Review

In 9 , the meek inherit the earth.

What an inheritance.

The world is a lifeless, smoking pile of rubble, the land laid waste by war between machine and man. The sky is a haze of brown-gray soot, the streets are littered with stone and metal shards and skeletons—the detritus of a civilization snuffed out. Nothing around here weeps. Nothing breathes. Nothing lives.

There, in the corner of the carnage, small, sentient rag dolls lurk. The meekest of the meek, they’re called stitchpunks, and their cloth skin covers intricate machinery that allows them to talk and walk and run. And there’s something else inside them, too: thought, feeling, ingenuity, ambition. They click and whir and live. And die.

9, our titular hero, is the last of his kind—the creation of a repentant scientist who somehow stitched a soul inside him and set him spinning. But the process kills the scientist, so 9 crawls out into this hostile world alone, only by happenstance finding others much like him.

They are, it turns out, products (offspring?) of the same scientist—they’re numbered 1 through 8—and together, they face the earth’s current master: A sentient-but-soulless machine that creates other spiritless monsters and has a strange, all-encompassing hatred for stitchpunks. The spider-like machine captures these little rag dolls and, through the use of a cryptic, unexplained talisman, yanks out their essence—killing them. We don’t know why it hates them. We don’t know why it kills them. Perhaps it doesn’t know why, either. It simply does.

So opens our planet’s final showdown—a clash in which the last semblance of humanity, sewn inside ragtag avatars, faces the force that destroyed everything.

[ Note: The following sections contain spoilers. ]

Positive Elements

9 and his fellow stitchpunks are (pardon the pun) a tight-knit group. While some are more sympathetic than others (and one, for much of the film, is a downright jerk), all seem willing to sacrifice a great deal—sometimes their lives—for the good of their “family.” Several show moments of bravery and ingenuity, and all seem to genuinely care for others—even if that concern sometimes manifests itself in different ways.

Spiritual Elements

While neither God nor religion is overtly mentioned in 9 , spiritual themes are everywhere. First, there are the stitchpunks themselves: They’ve been imbued with souls—a contrast to the heartless machinery they fight. Director Shane Acker uses his stitchpunks to question the evolutionist notion that humanity is just a pile of organic nuts and bolts. There is, he argues, something special about the soul.

“There’s some spirituality in [our] creation, some indescribable thing that can’t be broken down into scientific terms,” Acker told scienceblogs.com . “Though we can start to describe [the] brain as a complex collection of nerves that creates thought, you can say that we’re complex amino acid collections, how do you describe that consciousness that humans have?”

Second, there’s the way these stitchpunks get their “souls.” The stitchpunks are, we learn, manifestations of the creator-scientist’s own soul—the man’s essence split into nine parts. And, while the scientist uses some scientific method to achieve this (the film suggests it’s a form of “dark science,”) the effect feels more akin to magic or, as Acker himself says, “alchemy.” The devices that achieve this transfer (and the devices the machine uses to capture the souls of the stitchpunks) are engraved with symbols. And once 9 and others are able to release the captured souls, the scene feels both ceremonial and spiritual: The “souls” actually appear and walk briefly to their flags before they’re swept up into the air, turning into a green, swirling mist.

Third, the stitchpunk known as 1 may serve as some sort of metaphor for the Pope, or the Catholic church, or perhaps organized religion in general. He walks around with a pointy hat, cape and what looks to be a shepherd’s crook, and he sets up shop (along with his stitchpunk followers) in a deserted cathedral. He is the least sympathetic stitchpunk by far: While 9 wants to save his friends, 1 wants to find somewhere safe. While 9 wants to fight the machines, 1 wants to run away and follow the “rules.” He rails against 9’s constant questions (and questioning), pooh-poohs science and betrays one of his own kind.

But 1 is not uniformly bad. As time goes on, his religious trappings are forcibly ripped away from him, and he winds up making the bravest, most selfless sacrifice of all. I don’t know if the filmmakers intended this, but to me, his actions evoked thoughts of a heartening spiritual idea: Beneath all the Church’s sometimes ostentatious trappings, foibles and weaknesses, at its core it’s still a beautiful thing—and that beauty is built on sacrifice.

One more note: Acker may suggest here that humanity made technology itself into a false god. Through a film clip, we see the creation of the primary soulless, sentient machine, and we learn through narration that the machine was designed to “make others in its own image.” Its home—a massive, dilapidated factory—looks very much like a cathedral.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Violent content.

One of the trailers for 9 informs potential moviegoers, “This is not your little brother’s animated movie.” Take this message as a warning.

The mechanized creatures here are enough to spawn nightmares. Stitchpunks meet a part metal, part bone doglike robot they call the Beast, for instance. And some are captured by an über-scary snakelike thing topped by a doll’s head—one that reanimates stitchpunk corpses to draw others to their doom. Countless cockroach-fast micro-machines chase the stitchpunks through a long tube. Indeed, all the machines in 9 are absolutely, terrifyingly ruthless, and we see them not just stalk and chase our heroes, we see them slice, skewer and chomp them before carrying their mangled bodies away. Often, stitchpunks are still alive even after such abuse. (9 stitches up 7’s leg after she’s harpooned, and 5 manages to fix 9’s arm after it got torn.) But once their souls are sucked from them—as green energy invades their bodies through their eyes and mouths—their bodies go limp and lifeless.

The stitchpunks fight back with a handful of small knives and needles, and they even manage to hack off parts from their attackers. (The Beast, for instance, is “killed” after one of them slices off its head.) Stitchpunks destroy the main machine gathering point by setting a barrel of oil on fire and rolling it into its hyper-explosive bowels. Later, they shoot (and hit) the massive head machine with a cannon.

There is no blood—all the victims are machines—but the carnage and peril are significant.

Glimpses back into the human world reveal the scientist’s dead body in his apartment and another body in a car. We witness a bit of the war that led to this post-apocalyptic world: One man, after he lobs something at a vanguard of advancing robots, is shot down and falls to the ground, lifeless.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug & alcohol content, other noteworthy elements.

1 fully expects his comrade to be captured or killed when he sends 2 out on a mission. 9, using a powerful talisman rather cluelessly, awakens the main machine.

9 , produced by that connoisseur of creep Tim Burton, might be construed as many things: a fairy tale, a fable, a warning, a horror story.

What this animated post-apocalyptic nightmare is not , is a kids’ movie.

There’s no blood, no sex, no foul language. But 9 offers us a dark world filled with bleak, frightening imagery. It extends few smiles and no laughs. The hope it reluctantly unveils is pale, plastered lightly on a wall of disaster.

But the dystopian palate, in context, makes sense. We are, after all, being given a window to the end of the world—one of our own making, one in which humanity’s passion for technology outstripped its capacity to contain it. As Dr. Ian Malcom said in Jurassic Park (another film where technology is unleashed with teeth), “[They] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

Science is a great thing. It has given us longer lives, unimagined freedom and, of course, this website. But Burton and Acker warn that science cannot, and should not, be the answer to everything. Our technological advances are only that if we imbue them with a little humanity, a little morality. And that, in our insane information age, is a timely message indeed.

“This world is ours now,” says 9 at the end of the film. “It’s what we make of it.”

As grim as 9 is, it seems to understand that in 2009, we still have time to make something of it.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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9 movie review

9 finally touches down in the UK: but is this one of the finest animated treats of the year?

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What do you expect out of an animated film? Great ideas? Great stories? Quirky characters? Family entertainment? Wholesome messages for the toddlers of today? Wonderful aesthetics? Or a bit of everything? Best to think about this up front, because it will seriously effect your potential enjoyment of 9 , the debut feature film from director Shane Acker.

Adapted from his genuinely brilliant Oscar-nominated animated short of the same name, 9 is a film bursting with visual ideas, but completely lacking in the narrative department. Central to the story are little rag-doll creations called stitchpunks, who roam a ruined, post-apocalyptic wasteland brought about by a major war between man and machine.

Over an opening narration, we are introduced to the world, where the ‘blind pursuit of technology’ cooked up man’s downfall. All that is left are the stitchpunks – cute marriages of thread, cloth and metal who speak with the voices of Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly – and the Monster, a cat-like machine of bone and cogs.

The film follows the story of #9 (Wood), the youngest of the stitchpunks, who wakes in the workshop of a deceased scientist, and ventures out in the wide world. Along the way, he meets others like him, such as the kindly tinkerer #2 (Martin Landau), and the dopey, big-hearted #5 (John C. Reilly). When it comes to raw visuals and atmosphere through animation and design, Acker creates some wonderful, stunning and chilling work.

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The beguiling context conjures up a myriad of influences, from H.G. Wells’ classicist machine-driven science fiction to even the Fallout video game series in its indeterminate mixture of time periods and dusty mood; however, 9 is seen through tiny, overwhelmed, resourceful eyes, and there is great joy in seeing how Acker and crew show the stitchpunks etching out their existence out of the residue of human life. Archetypal locations – a church, a library, a factory – are given immense scale and wonder, and the dolls use discarded artifacts to create little gadgets, such as an elaborate torch made from a miniature lightbulb.

Better still are the machines: monsters crafted out of a nightmarish collision of electrical, household and industrial parts. A flying bat is all jagged blades and a motorised fan, but most striking is a hybrid snake-spider monster, that encases its prey in red thread, that has a baby doll’s head nestled on its shoulders. These are images born of wild, expressive imagination, and they stick with you.

It is unfortunate, therefore, that the story is so forgettable. Where the original short was 11 silent minutes of evocation and mystery, the feature length version of 9 is 79 minutes (that’s just over 1/2 a Dark Knight ) of generic, half-baked nonsense.

The flaws show early in the film, where the opening 20 minutes are dedicated to almost simultaneous chase scenes, as opposed to any characterisation or breathing room. Before you know it, you’re knee deep in a bland story, involving one-dimensional identikit characters (a feisty female, a stupid brute, a mean old codger), and bluntly patronising storytelling about a strange talisman and the conflict between ‘the soul’ and ‘the intellect’. It wouldn’t be so bad, if 9 didn’t also sport one of the worst screenplays ever paired up with an animated film, with plenty of clunky one-liners, droll, workmanlike dialogue and heavy-handed thematics.

It’s hard to pin the blame for 9 ‘s flaws on anyone. Did Acker bite off more than he could chew by developing the story for the big screen? Did writer Pamela Pettler ( Corpse Bride , Monster House , the upcoming film adaptation of Monopoly (!)) err to the side of boring convention when faced with the visionary director’s mad expressionism? What about producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov? Were they too stand-offish, or too meddlesome?

A lot of questions, and few answers. It is unfortunate that 9 is such a mess – a disarmingly short mess, with an abrupt ending, at that.

Acker obviously has great talent, and one sequence in particular, involving the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow , is a textbook piece of tension and upset expectations. But there’s no avoiding the fact that 9 ‘s narrative aspects are utterly terrible.

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Its design work and tone scream ‘teenage audience’, with most sequences far too scary for little ‘uns, but the plot, themes and characters have little spark or intelligence running through them to engage even the youngest of viewers.

With plenty of better animated films on offer this year ( Up , Coraline , Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs ), it is probably best to save time and money, and watch the short instead.

Michael Leader

Screen Rant

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“I Don’t Know How I Feel”: Minecraft Movie Trailer’s CGI Gets Decidedly Mixed Response From VFX Artists

Why did rey bury the two lightsabers in rise of skywalker, jake gyllenhaal's $552m sci-fi disaster movie becomes netflix global hit 20 years later.

Screen Rant reviews 9

There's been a lot of buzz around the Shane Aker-directed, Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov-produced movie 9 . The idea for a feature length 9 movie was sparked by a short film of the same name by writer-director Shane Aker.

The short film is really quite amazing (click on the link above to see it) and I was excited to hear a full length film would be made based on it. However when I saw the first trailer and there was dialog (the short film has none) I got a bit worried that it might not have the power of the original short film. While the addition of dialog does remove a fair amount of the sense of awe and mystery, the full length 9 still manages to stand on its own as a film worth watching.

9 is both the title of the film and the "name" of the hero of the film (voiced by Elijah Wood). As the film opens, the first thing we see is the unconscious, burlap, rag doll figure that is 9 hanging by his wrist in the center of some mechanical device. It's obvious that he's been there for quite a while - long enough that the thin string supporting him has frayed against the circular frame surrounding him and the look of the surroundings. The string finally breaks, and upon hitting the table 9 awakens, disoriented by his surroundings.

He finds himself in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world devoid of human life - and in possession of a mysterious device that he senses must be important. Eventually he runs into others of his own kind who have been hiding from a terrifying mechanical cat beast, hoping that it eventually dies away. They are led by "1" (voiced by Christopher Plummer) who has a big, burly and not very smart "8" as a protector. When 9 appears on the scene, he is dismayed at the sense of fatality and status quo the few survivors are living in. "2" was the first person he ran into - 2 saved his life and while he was taken away by the cat beast, 1 has no intention of sending anyone off on a rescue attempt.

9 takes things into his own hands and along with 5 (a scientist-apprentice of 2) heads off to try to rescue their captured comrade. Along the way they meet 7 (Jennifer Connelly), an independent young female who has ninja-like skills and refuses to live under 1's rule.

Soon the device found by 9 is put into use with disastrous consequences, from which our intrepid little heroes must extricate themselves.

Shane Acker and the actors manage to bring many nuances of emotion to the little robotic(?) characters in the film and it doesn't take long at all to start feeling for and empathizing with them. Each character was designed to excel at a specific function and their personalities match whichever that might be. We do also get to see what led to the world they live in through flashbacks - and there is a cool retro "War of the Worlds" vibe to that part of the film.

The film is more than a bit vague on how these little critters were created - in the original short film it's not an issue, but in a full length feature film the lack of a better explanation here did intrude on my enjoyment of the film a bit. Also, even at just 80 minutes it still felt a little long to me.

This movie is wonderful visually - I loved the detail and texture of the world they created here (if you're a fan of the "steampunk" genre you'll probably love 9) . The film is dark both visually and in tone - and so rich in detail that you won't be able to absorb it all in one viewing. Speaking of "dark," 9 is rated PG-13 for "violence and scary images." In particular cat beast and the seamstress are sure to freak the little ones out - so please keep in mind while this is an animated CGI film, it might not be suitable for kids under 7 or so. There is some nightmare material here for sure for more sensitive kids.

While there are familiar elements to the story (while details of the story are unique, the overall story arc is fairly conventional), the originality of the idea still shines through loud and clear. Being that it has the odd combination of being a CGI animated film that's not really suited for younger children, I hope that 9 still manages to find an audience because it's a film that is definitely worth watching.

9 is a postapocalyptic animation movie that focuses on a rag doll that may hold humanity's last chance at salvation. The film stars Elijah Wood as the voice of 9 alongside other big-name actors such as Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, and John C. Reilly.

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9: Nine Movie Review: A Sci-fi Film That Comes Into Its Own After It Turns Into A Psychological Thriller

Language: Malayalam

Cast: Prithviraj, Mamta Mohandas, Wamiqa Gabbi

Director: Jenuse Mohammed

Nine sets off on a very intriguing and exciting thread. A comet is going to pass by planet Earth over a period of nine days. In those nine days, the planet will go into complete darkness, with no electricity or modern technology. How will humans survive such a blackout?

Director Jenuse Mohammed, who made his debut with the Dulquer Salmaan film 100 Days of Love has Albert (Prithviraj), an astrophysicist, as the leading character. Albert is a widower with a young son, Adam. Apart from being a loner, Albert also has a strained relationship with his son. When his boss, Dr. Inayat Khan (Prakash Raj speaking horrifyingly broken Malayalam), offers him an opportunity to write a feature in Time magazine about the comet, Albert agrees and goes to the Himalayas with his son to study the event closely.

The film opens with an aged and bespectacled Prithviraj doling out science lessons to his young son, Albert who eventually grows into the protagonist. His backstory is clearly unimaginative—a wife (Mamta Mohandas, the official cameo queen off late) who dies when in labour, leaving behind a lonely unhappy boy. The initial portions introducing Albert's workplace and colleagues were unusually bland with conversations that read like they were part of a theatre performance and colleagues who seemed to be fans in awe of Albert's every word. There is a bit about his boss Inayat Khan that feels like it came straight out of an old Renji Panicker script.

Prithviraj's Albert is the third fantastically similar character he has played in recent times, after Ranjan Mathew ( Ezra ) and Adam ( Adam Joan ). The brooding loner husband, who battles inner demons that spill over in all his relationships. The core is also the weakest link in the film—the father-son bond that falls flat. What should have been an intense relationship fails to keep us invested emotionally. The writing is so ordinary that there is not a single memorable scene between the two. And the actors seem to be struggling to display the necessary warmth crucial for such an intense bond.

Nine appears to be a sci-fi film on the surface, but with its frames bearing the texture of psychological/horror film, there is enough to feel the chills. This is eventually what works in the narrative, with the elements of horror being downright eerie. The film really picks up pace when the sci-fi gives way to spine-chilling horror. At the large bungalow, small hints of an impending horror trail are let loose—the enigmatic morose old house-help, and a girl (Wamiqa Gabbi) who is brought home by Albert. Gabbi, with her auburn-tinged hair and gentle smile, is scintillating as this mysterious stranger who creates a bond with the little boy.

At some point in the film, we are on our way to figuring out the paranormal activities, but almost every puzzling question is spoonfed to us. Trimming unnecessary elements like that superficial romantic ditty (that would have worked infinitely better as a brief monologue) would have added some pace to the narrative.

Nine succeeds, to an extent, in covering up the writing flaws with superb production value and technology. The VFX, except for that comical fox, is convincing and creative—especially the star-lit dark sky, the reddish comet, and the black, cloudy ghostly invasion. So was the BGM that effectively gave goosebumps.

The last few portions were uncomfortably like Ezra that also dealt with a similar predicament. Prithviraj, apart from repeating himself, is also causing harm to his films by repeating certain actors and worse, giving them the same old narrative. The talented Rahul Madhav, for instance, looked like he had never left the Adam Joan sets. Either way, the sub-characters were all sketchy. Mamta Mohandas appeared sporadically in black and white gowns and bright pink or red matte lipsticks and failed to evoke any emotion.

Nine , despite having an interesting premise, ended up as feeling like the last in the Ezra , Adam Joan series

Movie Review: ‘Transformers One,’ an origin story no one wants with brutality levels no one needs

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows characters, from left, D-16/Megatron, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, Elita-1, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, voiced by Chris Hemsworth, and B-127, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows character B-127, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows character Sentinel Prime, voiced by Jon Hamm, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows character D-16/Megatron, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows character Elita-1, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows character Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, voiced by Chris Hemsworth, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

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Movie origin stories finally reach their nadir this week with “Transformers One,” the super-violent, toy-selling vehicle that tells the tale of how Optimus Prime and Megatron went from besties to foes. Did anyone ask for this? Did Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner ask for too much money?

The computer-animated “Transformers One” is out of time, a throwback to a few years ago when Hollywood mined popular IP for forgotten heroes, built overly complex worlds and then ramped up the action so that the audience just got numbed to a blur of battles. But “Transformers One” isn’t good enough to watch on a plane, even a trans-Pacific flight. The inflight map is better.

A map isn’t a bad idea, actually: You may need some sort of guide for this one — those uninitiated to the folklore of Cybertron are flung helplessly into references to Energon, Alpha Trion, Quintessons and something called the Matrix of Leadership. You come in halfway into a conversation.

The story by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari is basically the Bible’s Cain and Abel with a detour into the Roman Empire and the Hasbro figurines’ accumulated mythology, which seems to be a series of never-ending epic battles between good and evil. Some stuff just seems downright weird, like why these robots need a gym or why after running they become breathless.

The main heroes here are buddies Orion Pax and D-16 — who will become mortal enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron by the end — and we meet them when they are lowly miners, basically non-transforming bots digging for reserves of the energy cleverly called Energon. This is a society in which the upper class is made up of Transformers who stomp around preening while the lower classes do dirty jobs like comb through garbage.

They all serve Sentinel Prime, the leader of the subterranean Iacon City, who is not what he seems. He is apparently the last of the Primes and lives in a marble palace, giving the people below spectacles as a diversion, like an epic road race. It gives off ancient Roman Coliseum vibes.

Orion Pax (voiced with puppy-dog sweetness by Chris Hemsworth) is not satisfied by this life. “There’s got to be something more I can do,” he says. “Aren’t you tired of being treated like you’re nothing?” Brian Tyree Henry voices D-16 with skepticism and resignation.

The two friends join with mining manager Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson, bland) and Keegan-Michael Key’s B-127 (who will later become fan favorite Bumblebee) to journey to the surface of the planet, find the Matrix of Leadership (a sort of necklace that might have been sold in the Sharper Image catalog) and get a hero’s welcome. But they learn some unsavory things about the ruler from the Transformer elder statesman Alpha Trion (the instantly recognizable Laurence Fishburne).

Elita-1, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

Director Josh Cooley, who co-wrote the screenplay for “Inside Out” and helmed “Toy Story 4,” never lets the action stop — and that’s not a compliment. The camera is constantly swiveling and the violence — assault-weapon lasers, booming cannons, light torture, martial arts crunching moves, beating a rival with their own amputated limb and ceaseless pounding — is nauseating. (“Please stop punching me in the face” is a joke line here.) If Transformers ever bled, this would be an R-rated movie.

The hyper-violence papers over some pretty robotic — sorry! — dialogue. Why do all these movies show the Transformers with cool upgrades like laser knives but they remain speaking in stilted, operatic prose? “I want him to suffer and die in darkness,” “They are to be your undoing” and “Cybertron’s future is in your hands.”

There are some good moments, of course. When our band of misfit bots get an upgrade to Transformer status, they cutely don’t know how to do it seamlessly at first, with limbs awkwardly getting mixed with vehicle parts. Anyone who has played with the toys knows the feeling. And Key never fails to generate a chuckle, proving a masterful comedic voice actor.

B-127, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, in a scene from “Transformers One.” (Paramount Pictures via AP)

The other actors — Jon Hamm and Steve Buscemi, included — hardly register and the movie’s main song — “If I Fall” by Quavo, Ty Dolla $ign and Brian Tyler’s Are We Dreaming — feels like AI wrote both the uninteresting rap-rock beat and soupy lyrics (“I’m the alpha, omega, got lights on me, Vegas.” Vegas?)

The saddest thing about “Transformers One” is the wastefulness of another dull outing in a universe geared toward kids just learning to transform themselves. The lessons here, unfortunately, are that friends can become enemies overnight and you only win if you beat someone hard enough. “We’re better than this,” Orion Pax screams at his sudden rival at one point. No, they’re not.

“Transformers One,” a Paramount release that lands in theaters Friday, is rated PG for “sci-fi violence and animated action throughout, and language.” Running time: 103 minutes. Half a star out of four.

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Broncos film review: Run game and Javonte Williams against the Steelers

Denver was unable to get their rushing attack going against Pittsburgh. Why not?

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NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos

A Sean Payton offense is typically centered around a solid rushing attack. The offensive line that Denver has put together was set up with a run-first mindset. Javonte Williams was supposed to be a bruising running back that would play between the tackles.

It’s safe to say that the first couple weeks of Broncos football has not gone according to plan. But why has the running game looked so bad, and why is Williams averaging just 2.1 yards per carry? Did the offensive line not give him anything to go off of, or did Williams constantly make the wrong reads? Let’s take a look at the film from their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and see what’s going on.

Stat crunch

The Denver Broncos ran the ball with Javonte Williams a total of 11 times for just 17 yards, including a long of five. This was only good enough for 1.5 yards per carry. He also was only able to average a mere -0.64 yards before contact. A stat that got a lot worse from week one to week two.

Williams YBC Breakdown

YARDS BEFORE CONTACT	TIMES HIT
YARDS BEFORE CONTACT	TIMES HIT
-4	1
-2	2
-1	2
0	4
1	1
2	1

The play calling also didn’t do Denver any favors and they got more predictable as the game went on. Out of Williams’ 11 rushes eight times they lined up under center and three times they ran out of gun. And they would run inside 10 of those 11 times.

And this would spell disaster for Denver in the second half (we’ll take a look at the film later) when the Steelers dialed up a perfect blitz that would drop Williams almost as soon as he took the hand off.

The specifics

Rush #1 - (15:00 - 1st) williams left guard to den 33 for 3 yards.

The Broncos decide to start the game off running the ball, which I am always a fan of, especially when the game is riding on them establishing the run. They look like they’re running a sort of H Power, based off of the down block by the RT and the shuffle block by the RG and the H looking like he’s trying to pull wrap. If this is accurate, then Williams would be running to a gap that probably won’t be there.

I think the main issue here is that Trautman was unable to vertically displace Watt (which is a high ask, especially for a TE), and it is that play by Watt that ends up dooming this play. His ability to fill the gap looks like it forces Williams to go left, and right into a gap that is then filled by the DT that McGlinchey is blocking.

If Williams stayed patient then he could’ve ran behind the H’s block and hit the D gap.

Rush #2 - (15:00 - 2nd) Williams right guard to DEN 48 for 4 yards

For his second rush of the day the Broncos decide to run Power, and, if the blocking assignment are what I think they are, then I am putting just about all of the blame on the FB (Burton, #20) here.

The offensive line all make pretty good blocks. Bolles and McGlinchey take great first steps and get inside leverage instantly, Meinerz executes a perfect shuffle block, and Powers is in a good spot when he pulls up. The issue here is that the Mike comes off of the edge unblocked and makes a play in the backfield.

The DE is blocked by the extra offensive lineman (Peart) so that would likely mean that Burton would be responsible for the inner-most threat if Powers is pulling up rather than kicking out. He completely runs right by the threat, giving up an easy tackle.

Rush #3 - (4:32 - 2nd) Williams left tackle to PIT 39 for 3 yards

This play is so close to being money. Denver runs Duo left and they initially block it up very well.

Bolles gets out to the edge, Trautman does a solid job of taking over the DT to bump McGlinchey up to backer, and Wattenberg gets plenty of movement on the linebacker. The issue here is that Meinerz, while getting a good initial block, gets a little careless and allows for his feet to get narrow and over-extends himself on the block, allowing for the backer to shed him.

And even though Powers gets good initial movement, he allows for the DT to keep good separation (the enemy of the offensive line) and is able to keep his eyes in the back field and sheds the block at the right time.

A three yard gain that should’ve gone for six plus.

Rush #4 - (12:44 - 3rd) (Shotgun) Williams left guard to DEN 25 for 5 yards

This time the Broncos run GT counter left, and their first rush with Williams from the gun. This play ends up being a jumbled mess at the point of attack and even though both pullers were able to hit their targets, Williams had almost no chance on this one.

Let’s take a look at the left side. Peart, Bolles, and Powers have down blocks to create space for the RG and RT to pull behind. Ideally the RG would kick out the first man on the edge and the RT would pull up through the gap behind the RG. Since the Steelers bring two off of the edge, that means that both the G and T will have kickout blocks.

The man to blame for this play’s failure is primarily Bolles. he gets caught leaning and the DT hits him with a well-executed rip over move, and even though Peart gets could contact on the DT, Bolles loses his feet and falls, clogging up the rushing lane and allowing for the DT to work back into the gap. Although, you can also make the argument that Williams should have bounced the ball outside behind Peart’s block.

Rush #5 - (10:51 - 3rd) Williams up the middle to DEN 25 for -4 yards

It looks like Denver is running a sort of Duo with an H insert on the right side. This play is doomed from the start and I am not sure who exactly to pin the blame on (one of the fun parts of watching film without knowing the exact play and blocking assignments). I can blame either Bolles or Powers, and I’m leaning Bolles.

This play is made off of the two interior double team blocks on the DTs, and they are both handled pretty well. Powers’ primary responsibility would be the DT over him and the backer that is filled behind the DT. Bolles’ primary responsibility should be the end man on the line of scrimmage, and with the backer walked up, he wouldn’t be the end man, but would be a bigger threat to the play than the DE would be. You can make the argument that Powers should have blocked out to the backer and leave the DT for Wattenberg, but then again Bolles only has his eyes to the outside and doesn’t appear to even see the backer.

I’ll just blame both of them for not even appearing to communicate who is picking up the backer. It would be a perfect play if they had a lead blocker. Too bad they didn’t. Williams had no chance.

Rush #6 - (8:54 - 3rd) Williams right guard to DEN 18 for 3 yards

Denver looks to run FB Lead Duo right on this play. You have the offensive line attempting to move everyone to the right, which can create a cutback lane to the left, or a gap should open up behind the leading FB. I like this play because it gives more options to the RB and more gaps that the defense has to fill.

I see what Williams sees: the backside C gap open up. The issue here is that Bolles doesn’t have any way to prevent the DT from slanting back to the cutback lane if Williams decides to do so. And I don’t think this is the fault of Bolles because, based on his footwork and hand placement, it looks like his job is to reach the DT and cut him off from the inside gap, and he does a solid job with the technique needed to do so.

All in all, Heyward does a great job as the backside defender and I think Williams would have been better off running behind the lead and taking the three or so yards that were there.

Rush #7 - (6:56 - 3rd) (Shotgun) Williams up the middle to PIT 6 for 1 yard

I’m going to refer to this play as H-Wham Z-Crack Zone right. You have the offensive line displacing the defensive line to the left while leaving the right DE, the Z receiver coming down inside to crack block the Will, and then you have the H coming across the line and looks like he’s on his way to kick out the DE.

I would say that Williams takes this rush too far to the inside and doesn’t allow for the Z to make the block on the Will. Instead he should have gone more outside to get behind the butt of the Z, and there is a large gap there. Especially if the H is able to make that block on Watt. This could have been a chunk play but the ball is not ran behind the pullers.

Rush #8 - (4:16 - 3rd) Williams right end to DEN 29 for -1 yards

T.J. Watt and Matt Peart bring this play to a halt from pretty much the first step. If Powers is supposed to pull around the outside then I would assume that Peart would have to get outside leverage on Watt and wall him inside. But Peart seemingly keys off on the inside shoulder of Watt so that would lead me to believe that this play was supposed to hit inside of Peart with Powers pulling up through the hole.

But with Peart putting his feet in the ground and just lunging at Watt there is no way that he makes this block and that forces Powers to have to go outside. And anytime a play has to be bounced outside, the longer you spend having to run laterally, the more time that the inside defenders have to catch up to you.

Rush #9 - (0:39 - 3rd) Williams up the middle to DEN 42 for 4 yards

T.J. Watt makes Trautman look like an absolute fool. To be fair, this is a tough block for Trautman to make on his own and I’m surprised by how many times this game Payton put Trautman on a one-on-one block with Watt. But Trautman lunges and Watt hits him with a great rip over move and clogs up the hole that the H was trying to pull up in to.

I want to shout out the recovery that Wattenberg makes on this play. The DT does a good job of chopping the hands, but Wattenberg keeps his hips underneath him and is able to maintain his balance, reset the hands, and get his hips back into the block.

I think that Meinerz should have stayed on the DT. McGlinchey has to pick up an outside defender and come off of the double team and Meinerz doesn’t feel that so he comes off to the backer, leaving the DT unblocked. A better scenario would be for Meinerz to stay on the DE and leave Williams one-on-one with a backer in the hole. Or Williams probably could have bounced this to the outside as he had a few blockers on the edge in front of him.

Rush #10 - (12:12 - 4th) Williams right tackle to PIT 18 for 2 yards

I cringed while watching this play. The Broncos look like they’re running Outside Zone right and there appears to be a giant cutback lane to the left.

The offensive line does a decent job of getting the defensive line to start running to the right, and you want that lateral movement when you run a zone-type play and that opens up a large hole on the back side.

Wattenberg and Powers do a great job of getting that DT running and unable to get his feet in the ground. Williams should have cut off of either side of that double team and probably could have gained four or more yards on this one.

Rush #11 - (8:24 - 4th) (Shotgun) Williams right guard to DEN 33 for -3 yards

This play also makes me cringe. It’s these little mistakes and bad reads that doom this rushing game.

This time the Broncos run a Y-Wham Inside Zone right. The offensive line blocks inside zone to the left and attempts to move the defensive line laterally in that direction. The Y comes from the backside and kicks out the last man on the edge, which happens to be Watt.

Why they have Dulcich in as a blocker, I have no idea, but he gets too much depth on his pull-kick and is unable to get inside leverage on Watt. The goal of a kick out block is to get your head on the inside of the defensive player and force him to go around you, but you absolutely cannot get beat across your face, which is was happens to Dulcich here.

But even though it wasn’t a great block, Bolles, Powers, Wattenberg, and Meinerz do a solid job of bodying up their men on iso blocks, and they all have their hands in tight and hips into the blocks. This is almost a textbook look on the blocks. It’s up to Williams to make the proper read and cut back to the left. There is a lot of yards to be had.

Final thoughts

I think the offensive line played good enough, overall. The Steelers’ front seven posed a formidable threat and might be one of the toughest challenges the offense will see all season. They should have been able to run the ball on Pittsburgh. What hurt the offensive line was their inability to stay sticky on blocks and get a vertical push.

Other issues include the Hs and Ys not being good blockers. It also doesn’t make sense to me how often Payton had Trautman and others on one-on-one blocks on guys like T.J. Watt. That is not normally a recipe for success. Williams also left a lot of yards on the table.

The run game was not going to be amazing in this game, but they could have been a lot better. And Payton, the line, the Ys, and the Hs all have blame to carry.

The good news is that, with good coaching, these minor mistakes can be fixed. And it shouldn’t take weeks on weeks for them to be fixed either. There’s hope.

In This Stream

2024, week 2: broncos vs. steelers - everything we know.

Stats the way the cookie crumbles: Denver Broncos’ Game 2 stat review 2024

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'The Brutalist' Review: Adrien Brody Gives His Best Performance in This Sprawling, Impressive Epic | TIFF 2024

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When watching classic films like Citizen Kane , Lawrence of Arabia , or even a modern gem like There Will Be Blood or Oppenheimer , grand epics that focus on the accomplishments of great men with gargantuan ambitions, it’s easy to think, “They rarely make movies like this nowadays.” That’s also the feeling one gets when watching Brady Corbet ’s third film as director, The Brutalist , a 215-minute movie, complete with an opening musical overture and an intermission, shot on VistaVision, a film format that has rarely been used since the 1950s. Yet Corbet’s film, which he co-wrote with filmmaker, actress, and his wife, Mona Fastvold , manages to be both a throwback to this type of expansive yet personal storytelling, while also being incredibly modern in its form and experimentation. It’s a movie that warrants this level of scope and grandiosity, an ambitious, towering achievement of a film , even when it stumbles in its second half.

What Is 'The Brutalist' About?

THE-BRUTALIST-Adrien-Brody-and-Felicity-Jones

Adrien Brody gives a career-best performance as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who comes to America in the late 1940s . At home, László made a name for himself as an architect, leaving behind remarkable, striking pieces. László also came to America without his wife, Erzsébet Tóth ( Felicity Jones ), and his orphaned niece, Zsófia ( Raffey Cassidy ), but he writes to them, trying to convince them to join him in his new home. At first, László works with his cousin Attila ( Alessandro Nivola ), who owns a furniture shop in Philadelphia and for whom László makes some incredible pieces. But after crafting a tremendous library remodel for the wealthy Harrison Lee Van Buren ( Guy Pearce ) at his nearby mansion, Harrison contracts László to make the most massive, costly, and challenging building of his entire architectural career.

Throughout The Brutalist , it’s a delight to simply watch László work within his craft. As we watch the library remodel, commissioned by Harrison’s entitled son, Harry ( Joe Alwyn ), and his twin sister, Maggie ( Stacy Martin ), Corbet shows us the space, explains what the room’s complications are, and then we watch as László goes to solve these problems to make something truly stunning. Whether we’re watching him build a table for Attila’s shop, or undertaking Harrison’s enormous project, László’s talents are gripping to behold. In a film that can quite often be, as the name implies, brutal, watching the joy that László gets from showing off his gifts is often an all too brief respite for the uphill climb László must undertake to take part in the American dream.

'The Brutalist' Features Adrien Brody's Finest Performance So Far

Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce in The Brutalist

Brody is tremendous as László, an exceptional talent who wants to make his way in this new country and isn’t against working his way from the bottom to achieve his goals . As the film progresses, Brody shows László’s confidence building, a reminder of his past life, and an opportunity to showcase his abilities once more. The Brutalist is largely about an immigrant’s uphill climb in America and how exhausting the journey to prove yourself can be, and Brody embodies every one of these emotions perfectly . From the opening where he first steps off the ship to the last moments when we get to see his true vision, it’s an unforgettable performance that will go down as one of the year’s best.

It’s also fascinating to watch how László’s journey changes depending on who enters his world. When he lives in Attila’s furniture shop, holed up in an old stock room, he’s much more meek and unassuming; he gets his work done, but he mostly stays out of sight. Yet once he’s shown his greatness through old newspaper clips by Harrison and given a job worthy of his talents, he tackles the opportunity with vigor. Pearce is also giving one of his finest performances yet as Harrison , a symbol of how rich men in power utilize the work of immigrants to get ahead in life. Harrison isn’t a character who’s easy to parse out, shifting from a screaming madman to a welcoming figure in the community for László in his first two scenes. Even when The Brutalist is more blunt about Harrison’s intentions in the second half of the film, one of the movie’s rare missteps, Pearce plays Harrison with the stoicism and hypocritical moralism that makes the character work.

If You Want a Compelling Pop Star Story, Watch This Natalie Portman Movie

Take notes, Sam Levinson.

But there may be no bigger shift in The Brutalist than the one presented by Jones’ Erzsébet , and how her survival first fuels László’s quest, then challenges him in ways he didn’t expect. Jones’ Erzsébet is full of her own power, always ready to help and defend her husband, but also attempting to get back to normalcy and become a strong person on her own once more. While László almost becomes obsessed with Harrison’s project as the film goes on, Erzsébet has more chances to watch the Van Buren family without the burden of potential work looming over her. She can see the inconsistencies and questionable faces the family puts on while keeping an eye on the cracks underneath. Together, we can tell Erzsébet and László deeply love each other, but just because they’ve suffered greatly and come out the other end doesn’t mean that their problems have now washed away.

'The Brutalist' Starts Off Strong, but Occasionally Stumbles in Its Second Half

Corbet and Fasvold take this one man’s story and make it feel as magnificently epic as it deserves to be. Each frame is impeccably put together, with gorgeous cinematography by Corbet’s frequent collaborator Lol Crawley , and the entire story is strikingly impressive in the way its presented. Editor Dávid Janscó ( Pieces of a Woman , The World to Come) has the unenviable task of compressing this character’s life into this timeframe, and the film gracefully knows when to let us linger in moments that need to take their time, but can fly through details that aren’t necessarily important to László’s tale. Again, this feels like an old-school classic, but with a modern sensibility that shows this couldn’t have been made at any other time.

Corbet and Fasvold, in just their third film together, are tackling a staggering amount of massive topics, such as the immigrant experience, the building of America post-war, and how our country is often defined by those who come to it looking for something better. For the most part, Corbet and Fasvold’s script beautifully handles these points with great care and consideration. But The Brutalist ’s biggest flaws come in the occasional bumps in the screenplay, and some fairly heavy-handed imagery sprinkled throughout. In his post-screening Q&A at TIFF, Corbet discussed how he dislikes when films present their ideologies upfront and without letting the story make its points for itself. And yet, The Brutalist is also a film that begins with an immigrant coming to America, getting off the boat, and the first thing he sees is the Statue of Liberty upside down. It’s a striking image, for sure, but it also is exactly the type of shot that Corbet is apparently against.

While the first half of this film is gripping in its simplicity, as we watch László slowly climb the ladder back to the top, the second half understandably gets more complicated, and the screenplay itself has some issues with keeping up the quality. One of the most egregious examples, and most frustrating uses of straightforward symbolism, comes when László and Harrison go on a trip together to find materials for Harrison’s project. Without spoiling the details of the scene, Corbet and Fasvold choose to give us a scene that is far too blunt and direct in its presentation of how they believe the rich Americans treat the poor immigrants who come to our country. It’s a point that could’ve been made better in a more restrained way, but the film takes a direct route that feels out of place in the story we’ve been watching up until this point. Similarly, László has an addiction to heroin that he takes to dull the pain of a broken nose, and while these sequences are often harrowing, especially in the second half, they call a bit into cliché from time to time. Thankfully, these more conventional choices aren’t too common in a film that manages to feel fairly unconventional.

Corbet’s third film comes close to being a masterpiece, but not quite. Still, he shows that the astounding filmmaker certainly has a masterpiece in him. It’s truly astonishing to see this type of scale and quality coming from a director so early in their career, and it’s exciting to see Corbet creating a film unlike anything coming out these days. The Brutalist often plays with themes and tones that we’ve seen before, but through his vision, it plays as something wholly original and unique . Corbet’s film also showcases the immense talents of everyone within the film, from Brody, Pearce, and Jones giving some of their best performances, to the stunning cinematography of Crawley that makes this personal story feel towering. Despite its occasional flaws, The Brutalist is one of the most remarkable films of the year, and proof that Corbet is a fascinating filmmaker to keep an eye on.

The Brutalist

Brady Corbet's The Brutalist is a sight to behold, an epic that only occasionally missteps, featuring Adrien Brody's finest performance.

Brady Corbet proves himself to be an impeccable director with a style that feels both classic and modern.
Adrien Brody shines in his best performance as an architect coming to America to start a new life.
The Brutalist is one of the most gorgeous films you'll see all year.
The Brutalist's screenplay makes some questionable choices in the second half, and features some obvious metaphors that don't land well.

The Brutalist had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Movie Reviews

Brady Corbet

Movie Review

Will & harper docu goes on transgender road trip with will ferrell.

Harper Steele and Will Ferrell in Will & Harper.

As the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community have expanded over the past 50 or so years, one part of that group, transgender people, has found it more difficult to be considered a normal part of society. Every new instance of putting the story of a transgender person on screen, whether fictional or real, increases their exposure to those who might never have encountered them before.

That makes a documentary like Will & Harper (a title which seems to take inspiration from the groundbreaking TV series Will & Grace ) valuable. The fact that the “Will” in the title is comedian/actor Will Ferrell helps, as he and longtime friend, Harper Steele, embark on a road trip across the United States soon after Harper reveals her transition from a man to a woman.

Harper, who met Will while they were both at Saturday Night Live in the late '90s/early 2000s, decided at the relatively older age of 59 that she could no longer pretend to be someone she wasn’t. The idea of the road trip – and of filming it – came about so that the friends could reconnect, learn more about each other given the momentous change, and do a lot of the things that Harper enjoyed doing by herself prior to her transition.

Director Josh Greenbaum and his crew attach a camera to the hood of Harper’s old Jeep Wagoneer to record her and Will's conversations as they traverse many states, starting in New York and heading west. Their connection to SNL means that many of the show’s current and former stars show up in one form or another along the way, including Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, Lorne Michaels, Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte, among others.

While their love and respect for Harper is obvious, Harper has trepidation over how strangers in middle America will react to her. The presence of Will (and the cameras) gives her perhaps easier acceptance than someone not traveling with a famous person, but there are still more than a few uncomfortable stops, particularly when they get to the South (Texas does not come off well, but surprisingly Oklahoma does).

Those scenes with everyday Americans are interesting (if occasionally a bit contrived), but the heart of the film is the friendship between Will and Harper. Their conversations range from silly to heartfelt, but there is a genuineness to them that can’t be faked. Harper invites Will to ask her any questions he has about her transition, resulting in insightful – and, often, funny – answers. Their friendship was clearly already strong, but it gets palpably stronger during the 17-day journey.

There are a lot of messages one could get from a film like this, but it’s notable for how apolitical it is. Will and Harper have encounters with Eric Holcomb, the Republican governor of Indiana, as well as a few people wearing MAGA hats, but their positions on transgender people goes unremarked upon. The friends gently correct people who mis-gender Harper, but they never express any animosity towards them. It’s a movie about exploration, with education as a side benefit.

While it might be too strong to say that Will & Harper is a world-changing film, it adds another layer to the story of transgender people as a whole. It also shows the unconditional love between two friends, a lesson that is heartening in divided times.

Will & Harper is now playing in select theaters; it will debut on Netflix on September 27.

Dallas Goth man reviews spooky new Haunted Castle Cafe in Plano

Dallas' smu anointed no. 1 christian college in new national ranking, carla hall joins dallas chef tiffany derry at star-studded food festival, rock stars' favorite dallas motel chain hosts songwriting contest.

Dallas-based Motel 6 is celebrating its role as a favorite stay for aspiring rock stars on the road and is seeking songwriters to write them a song.

The budget lodging chain is hosting the Motel 6 Songwriting Contest, for musicians to write a song about, or inspired by, Motel 6, and the prize includes cash and free rooms at Motel 6. (They don't say you have to use those rooms while on tour, but that surely adds to the gritty authenticity.)

The grand prize is $6,000 plus 20 free room stays.

The song could be a reminiscence about your favorite road trip. Memories of your last family reunion. Anecdotes about the time you traveled across the country with your friends or pets.

"We recognize that touring is an important step for up-and-coming musical artists, yet it can be extremely costly to be on the road for an extended period of time," says Julie Arrowsmith, president and CEO of G6 Hospitality, parent company of Motel 6 and Studio 6.

"After a night of performing, Motel 6 offers a comfortable, welcoming place for bands to rest and recharge at an affordable rate that won't break the tour budget," Arrowsmith says. "We are happy to help pave the way for musicians to build the career of their dreams."

Singers and bands are invited to create a song about or inspired by Motel 6. Songs will be judged on criteria such as originality and storytelling. The top six songs will be selected by Motel 6, and the grand prize winner will be chosen by public vote.

The grand prize winner will receive a cash prize of $6,000 and 20 room nights at Motel 6 locations of their choice to help kickstart their next tour. Five runners-up will receive six room nights each.

Musicians can enter for a chance to win at www.motel6songwriting.com/entry . The deadline is Sunday, September 29 at 10 am Dallas time.

The online voting period will take place on Instagram from October 14-October 25. Learn how to vote by following Motel 6 on Instagram.

Motel 6 has nearly 1,500 locations across the U.S. and Canada, including along major interstates, whether that's a regular Motel 6 or a Studio 6 Extended Stay. Pets always stay free at Motel 6.

IMAGES

Nine Movie Review
Review: Nine
Nine (2009) Poster #4
Nine movie review & film summary (2009)
Nine (2009)
[Film Review] Nine (2009)

VIDEO

MUSHU PLAYS NINE SOLS
MUSHU PLAYS NINE SOLS
MUSHU PLAYS NINE SOLS
9 Full Movie Facts & Review / Elijah Wood / John C. Reilly
MUSHU PLAYS NINE SOLS
MUSHU PLAYS NINE SOLS

COMMENTS

Nine (2009)
Italian film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) grapples with epic crises in his personal and professional lives. At the same time, he must strike a balance of the demands of numerous women ...
Mark it down by 5.5555556% movie review (2009)
It's a great film, some say his best. "Nine" the musical "adapts" it, true enough, but doesn't feel it. Consider Fellini's most famous scene. The many women in the life of the hero Guido (played by Marcello Mastroianni) assemble in a fantasy harem and greet him: the Swedish stewardess, his wife, his mistress, his mother, Saraghina ...
9
NEW. When 9 (Elijah Wood) springs to life, it finds itself in a post-apocalyptic world where humans no longer exist, and the only signs of life are sentient rag dolls like itself and the machines ...
Nine (2009)
Nine: Directed by Rob Marshall. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Sandro Dori, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard. Famous film director Guido Contini struggles to find harmony in his professional and personal lives, as he engages in dramatic relationships with his wife, his mistress, his muse, his agent, and his mother.
There Will Be Lingerie (Singing, Too)
"Nine," directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha") from the Broadway musical (first staged in 1982 and revived in 2003), is a movie about creative blockage and sexual ...
Rag-doll apocalypse movie review (2009)
Action. 79 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2009. Roger Ebert. September 9, 2009. 3 min read. #9, the hero of "9." The first images are spellbinding. In close-up, thick fingers make the final stitches in a roughly humanoid little rag doll, and binocular eyes are added. This creature comes to life, walks on tottering legs, and ventures fearfully into the ...
9 (2009)
9: Directed by Shane Acker. With Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover. A rag doll that awakens in a postapocalyptic future holds the key to humanity's salvation.
9
The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world's machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down.But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in ...
Nine
Nine cannot help but be a limp facsimile of a film that is so full of life and brio. Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Oct 12, 2019
Nine
Nine is a vibrant and provocative musical that follows the life of world famous film director Guido Contini as he reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion, while balancing the numerous women in his life including his wife, his mistress, his film star muse, his confidant and costume designer, a young American fashion journalist, the whore from his youth and his mother.
Nine
In "Nine," written by Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella, you get a tired filmmaker with too many women in his life and not enough movie ideas. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Guido Contini ...
Nine (2009 live-action film)
Nine is a 2009 romantic musical drama film directed and co-produced by Rob Marshall from a screenplay by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, loosely based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1963 film 8½.In addition to songs from the stage musical, all written by Maury Yeston, the film has three original songs, also written by Yeston (Take It All, Cinema ...
9 (2009 animated film)
9 is a 2009 animated science fiction film directed by Shane Acker, written by Pamela Pettler and produced by Jim Lemley, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and Dana Ginsburg. Set in an alternate version of the 1940s, the film follows a rag doll labeled "9" who awakens shortly after the end of mankind following the uprising of machines. The film features the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly ...
9 Movie Review
9 Movie Review. 2:12 9 Official trailer. 9. Parent and Kid Reviews. See all. Parents say (34) Kids say (139) age 11+ Based on 34 parent reviews . Sliegrom Adult. April 19, 2021 age 10+ Great Philosophical Kids Movie This movie was fantastic. It deals with mature subject matter like the existential threat of misused technology and a government ...
Nine Review
Nine Review. 1960s Italy. Once-celebrated film director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) struggles with his unwritten script for his comeback film. Looking for inspiration, he turns to his mistress (Cruz ...
Nine Movie Review
Our review: Parents say (2 ): Kids say (5 ): It's a little unclear how an Irish actor wound up playing a tortured Italian director, but how lucky the audience is for it. NINE features Day-Lewis as we've rarely seen him: whimsical, unpredictable, prone to both rage and passion. He may not be exactly like Fellini's hero in 8 1/2 (on which this ...
Nine
Nine. By Peter Travers. December 10, 2009. Rob Marshall's flawed but frequently dazzling Nine is a hot-blooded musical fantasia full of song, dance, raging emotion and simmering sexuality. We ...
Nine (2009)
User Reviews. The movie version of the musical "Nine" (based on Fellini's 8-1/2) was released in 2009 with a wonderful cast that included Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido, Marion Cotillard as his wife Luisa, Penelope Cruz as his mistress Carla, Kate Hudson as a reporter, Judy Dench as his costumer, Nicole Kidman as his muse Claudia, Fergie as a woman ...
9
Movie Review. In 9, the meek inherit the earth.. What an inheritance. The world is a lifeless, smoking pile of rubble, the land laid waste by war between machine and man. The sky is a haze of brown-gray soot, the streets are littered with stone and metal shards and skeletons—the detritus of a civilization snuffed out.
9 film review
What the movie lacks in story and dialogue it makes up for in some delirious action sequences. 9 is an incredible movie in terms of sheer visual artistry. The movie is gorgeously animated ...
9 movie review
Best to think about this up front, because it will seriously effect your potential enjoyment of 9, the debut feature film from director Shane Acker. Adapted from his genuinely brilliant Oscar ...
'9' Review
9 is a postapocalyptic animation movie that focuses on a rag doll that may hold humanity's last chance at salvation. The film stars Elijah Wood as the voice of 9 alongside other big-name actors such as Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, and John C. Reilly. While '9' may not be suitable for younger children, it is a visually ...
9: Nine is a film that works better as a horror film %%sep%% %%sitename%%
9: Nine Movie Review: A Sci-fi Film That Comes Into Its Own After It Turns Into A Psychological Thriller. ... Nine appears to be a sci-fi film on the surface, but with its frames bearing the texture of psychological/horror film, there is enough to feel the chills. This is eventually what works in the narrative, with the elements of horror being ...
Movie Review: 'Transformers One,' an origin story no one ...
Movie origin stories finally reach their nadir this week with "Transformers One," the super-violent, toy-selling vehicle that tells the tale of how Optimus Prime and Megatron went from besties to foes, Associated Press critic Mark Kennedy says.
Denver Broncos film review of the tun game vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Let's take a look at the film from their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and see what's going on. Stat crunch The Denver Broncos ran the ball with Javonte Williams a total of 11 times for ...
'The Brutalist' Review
Movie Reviews. The Brutalist (2024) Brady Corbet. Your changes have been saved. Email is sent. Email has already been sent. close. Please verify your email address. Send confirmation email. close.
Will & Harper takes transgender road trip with Will Ferrell
Will & Harper (a title which seems to take inspiration from the groundbreaking TV series Will & Grace) valuable. The fact that the "Will" in the title is comedian/actor Will Ferrell helps, as ...
Film review: Position grades & five stars from Illini football's 30-9
Film review: Position grades & five stars from Illini football's 30-9 win over Central Michigan Illini Inquirer breaks down Illinois football's homecoming win over CMU with an in-depth film review

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