The Daily Spud: The Movies

One of the things that new parents must forfeit is going to the movies together. We tried to go to Star Trek with Spud last month to see if he'd sleep through it. I was prepared to bolt with him at the first sign of trouble. The carbuncular slack-jawed morons at the theater forgot to start the movie on time, and only got it rolling after 20 minutes and a few complaints from Claire and I and others. It was immediately clear that the movie would be much too loud and scary for the baby, so I ended up wandering the mall while Claire watched the movie. I took one for the team; Claire is a much bigger Trekkie than me. The good news was, even though I didn't get to see the movie, we got two free passes since they started it so late.

So last night, we planned to see a movie (District 9) in series. First Claire would go to the 7:05 showing and I'd stroll the baby around the mall, get a Starbucks, stretch my legs, and show Spud the shiny, colorful, world of the mall and people-watch it's scary-sad denizens. Then, I'd go watch the 9:45 show and Claire would take Spud home. Then, we'd get together and discuss the movie, and it would be just like we'd seen it together! Sort of. Anyway, that was the plan for the free tickets. Then we heard from a colleague that District 9, though a good movie, is very violent. This turned Claire off a bit, so I ended up going by myself to the 9:45 show.

District 9 is a good movie. The giant alien mothership arrives and hovers over Johannesburg South Africa (instead of, say, Los Angeles or New York). The aliens are not invaders, they are hungry and sick and get "rescued" and placed in a slum by a Blackwater-like corporate-government entity. The movie has great themes that focus on xenophobia and poverty and racism (the location in South Africa is no coincidence) and the terrible things that the powerful do to the weak. It's anti-Independence Day: WE are the snarling monsters that take away the dignity of the imprisoned aliens and randomly kill them.

The main character is a human, but he's flawed and selfish. He redeems himself somewhat in the end, but he's not really the hero of the movie. The aliens aren't cute (a cross between a cricket and a squid, kinda), but you ultimately realize that the "good guys" are an alien father and his little son. These are the two characters with the most, well, humanity. I was particularly concerned about the welfare of the little alien son, and I was most touched by their relationship, probably more so than I would have been a year ago.