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Nines, The
Newmarket Films

Nines, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 52 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.4 out of 10
based on 12 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language, some drug content and sexuality

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy, Elle Fanning, and Dahlia Salem

The Nines consists of three short films, each featuring the same actors in different--and sometimes overlapping--roles. Together, the three stories form a single narrative that explores the relationships between author and character, actor and role, creator and creation. Alternately funny and unsettling, The Nines is like a riddle where the answer is the question: "How does it all add up?" (Newmarket Films)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: John August  
DIRECTED BY: John August  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 29, 2008 
Theatrical: August 31, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
John August directs it briskly, as a gossip-era "Twilight Zone" of image and reality.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's an intricate, at times incoherent, but often funny and consistently fascinating trio of stories with the same actors in different but related roles.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Rather than come across as fantastic or dreamlike, the stories have a vivid, hyperreal quality to them.
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70
Film Threat Jamie Tipps
This movie is metaphysical fun, and while some elements are predictable, it’s an engaging mystery.
Read Full Review
63
Premiere Aaron Hillis
It's an overall heady conceit about image and invention, clever and fun with compelling lead performances -- especially Reynolds, who finally gets to show some chops in a career littered with Van Wilder–grade junk.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The payoff fizzles, but the buildup is intriguing until it topples under its own weight.
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60
Variety Dennis Harvey
The Nines arcs from witty Hollywood insiderdom to a climactic metaphysical leap that may leave many viewers nonplussed. Nonetheless, there's more than enough intelligence, intrigue and performance dazzle to make this an adventuresome gizmo for grownups.
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50
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The movie never fails to be crisply written and cannily delivered, but it's way too steeped in TV-culture inside jokes for its own good, and August's attempts to suffuse the whole thing with ontological or theological meaning are ultimately pretty dumb.
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50
The New York Times Stephen Holden
Think of it as a kind of “Twilight Zone 2007” in which the paranoia endemic to an industry that runs on illusion, hype and extravagant grandiosity comes home to roost.
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38
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Wavers uncomfortably between satire and dime-store existentialism on the big screen. It's sort of as if Charlie Kaufman rewrote "The Fountain."
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30
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The Nines is the feature-film-directing debut from screenwriter John August (Go, Big Fish), but it feels much more like some Bizarro World collaboration between Jean-Paul Sartre and Charlie Kaufman, and not in a good way, either.
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30
Village Voice Scott Foundas
It's hardly a novel idea, but at least when Kaufman, David Lynch, or Michel Gondry invites us on a tour of his chaotic subconscious, it's a fascinating place to visit. Plunging into August's gray matter is more like a season in vacation hell.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Vera M. gave it an8:
Intelligent, well acted and catchy : "The Nines" intrigues you all the time, and it doesn´t matter if you don´t like the final twist.

Dream W. gave it a9:
I bet everyone 1st thinks drugs and/or schizophrenia. But the avatar concept does work in the end and after 4K years "lost"as a demi-god, I think I'd crack up too. The conscious awareness he gives his "charatcters" in eah 'play' he creates is awesome..and how his wife knows in the end.... threw me off. I vote a high YES. Now, go rent "Dead Man" with Depp. DreamWalkyr

CJ O. gave it a4:
Garbage. If you like video games and have two hours to waste, it's perfect for you. Ryan Reynolds does save the film however with some good acting but the story is so wacky that it makes me wonder if Hollywood writers even deserve to be considered for a raise.

Chad S. gave it a6:
"If man is five/then the devil is six/and if the devil is six/then god is seven," is how the elegant universe worked according to Black Francis, former lead singer of The Pixies, back in 1988 when "alternative" music was still "college" music(in comparison, Limp Bizkit is more like community college rawk) and Buddhists didn't have to share their nirvana with moshers in flannel. Earlier in "Monkey Goes to Heaven"(from the album "Doolittle"), Francis talk-sings, "There was an underwater God who controlled the sea," which sounds a lot like Gary/Gavin/Gabriel(Ryan Reynolds), a digital avatar who controls our world, a world in which, man is seven, koala bear is eight, video game-programmer is nine, and god is ten. A better title for "The Nines"; how about "What the #$*! Does John August Know?" According to this "college" film("The Nines" was made for "smart" people; there's a pointed dig at video-game cultists, in a scene where Melissa McCarthy(playing herself) has to overdub some extra dialogue for Gary's pilot), our reality is a simulation program created by some video-game programmer from four-thousands years in the future. If Christians want to count themselves as smart people, they should boycott "The Nines", which is four-thousand times more offensive than Kevin Smith's "Dogma". Smith, at least, acknowledges that there is a God. If "The Nines" is six, then "The Jacket" is seven, and if "The Jacket is seven", "The Matrix" is eight", and if "The Matrix" is eight, then "Primer" is nine, and if "Primer" is nine, then "Existenz" is ten. "...is ten! This movie about string theory has gone to heaven/this movie about string theory has gone to heaven..."

Josh gave it a9:
It's been a while since I've been intrigued by such an original storyline. I watch mainly Mainstream movies, so this one was a little off the beaten path for me, but was not disappointed. Worth every penny.

Ross H. gave it a9:
I really enjoyed this film, althogh the topic matter may not be everybody's cup of tea. If you have an interest in existentialism, and video games its well worth the watch, some of the topics covered are very 'in jokes' but if you get them, they're brilliant.

D Scott gave it a9:
Wow, really thought-provoking (which is probably why some reviewers didn't get it), well written, and certainly well acted, esp Hope Davis. We talked about this film for hours. One of my favorite films this year.

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