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Screenwriter John August (Go, Big Fish, Charlie's Angels) makes his directing debut with The Nines, an interlocking metaphysical puzzle that amuses, engages, frustrates, and leaves audiences with a lot to chew on.

Ryan Reynolds, showing a great deal of unexpected depth stars as three different characters: a TV star, an aspiring TV showrunner, and a videogame designer in three short films that interconnect in creative and confounding ways. Melissa McCarthy ("Gilmore Girls"), Hope Davis (American Splendor), and Elle Fanning (Babel) round out a superb cast, each one doing a great job differentiating between the different characters they are playing.

August is going way, way conceptual with The Nines, and gives "Lost" a run for its metaphysical money. Peeking underneath the surface might be a profound meditation on the nature of existence and God's place in our lives, but The Nines doesn't reveal its secrets that easily.

Reynolds's characters go through varying degrees of existential confusion, and August effectively uses the tropes of reality television and massive multi-player gaming well. He doesn't go for satire; rather, he's genuinely interested in what these media have to say about existence. The Nines is an intelligent film, and it puts questions in the audience's mind that are worth exploring. A second viewing might reveal whether or not it has the answers.