Nine Days (2020)

Winston Duke is a formerly alive soul whose current job is to choose which of a handful of candidate souls will have the chance to be born. Outside of that job, he spends his time watching the lives of those souls he has chosen and occasionally hosting visits from Benedict Wong who serves as somewhat of a supervisor/mentor for Duke. It’s an ambitious and unusual take on existential topics that has kept me intrigued from the moment I read the premise. The cast, also including Zazie Beetz, Tony Hale, and Bill Skarsgård, is somewhat eclectic but somehow works when thinking of all the potential souls in the universe. Beyond that, the film has a gorgeous, minimalist set and Duke’s performance is heart-wrenching and incredibly mesmerizing. Looking up his filmography, it seems I might be stuck watching Spenser Confidential just to see more of his work.