Directed By Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Starring – Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr

The Plot – Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling, the US and Russian astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary.

Rated R for some violence and adult language

I.S.S. | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street – YouTube

POSITIVES

Claustrophobic space thrillers have become overcrowded territory in recent years, but with the inclusion of some scintillating social relevancy between dueling nations in our real world, similar to “Crimson Tide”, the structure imbeds creativity to the concept, testing trust to the limits of co-workers who purely know each other on a prefessional level, instead of a personal one. In terms of concept, screenwriter Nick Shafir truly pitches a compelling beauty here, but in execution it’s brought to life with a whodunnit? of sorts that tests everything that we’ve come to learn and interpret about these characters, all the while pushing the envelope of preconceived conventionalism while throwing in more than a few surprises along the way to keep audiences guessing. He does this by not only playing into the cinematic stereotypes that we’ve come to expect from foreign characters involved in a disputing conflict with American adversaries, before crumbling those notions with three-dimensional complexities of grey in between the sides of good and evil, but also threading the needle in terms of asking the question how far one would go for God and country, especially if that involved enacting such life-altering circumstances that puts any one of the six crew members and their respective cohorts in grave danger. In fact, the idea of paranoia and what springs from a lack of information is essentially what drives the entirety of the film, especially the extent of character actions, and while this is pushing things to the absolute brink of disaster for both countries, in a world of our own that is currently run by fake and fabricated news stories, it’s easy to interpret how the smallest seeds can lead to the deepest consequences, a point the movie makes with only six characters to its accessibility. Keeping the cast slim is wise enough, especially in articulating the isolation factor of the setting, which Cowperthwaite balances in direction with claustrophobic compositions conveying the inevitability of confrontation with the world that quite literally hangs in the balance, over the shoulders of each character, but it’s the relevancy of what’s happening on the ground that truly drives the narrative, despite the entirety of the film residing in the ship, surmizing stakes with world-ending conflict in ways that very few films are brave enough to effectively tap into. In terms of Gabriela’s capabilities, she seamlessly sews seeds of distrust within the group in everything from an unsettling reaction to a communicative disconnect in language, forcing the Russians to speak in a language so foreign to them, as a means of catering once more to Americans, and while the actions of the crew does require some suspension of disbelief in the execution of their actions, the dialogue driving their interactions feel grounded in realism and believability, allowing us to see them as people, instead of the familiar faces who portray each of them. On this aspect, it was pleasant and even a bit surprising to see the extent of actors who I love and appreciate adorned to the project, especially Messina and “Game of Thrones'” Pilou Azbaek, who each never lose sight of the heart and humanity in their constructs, despite actions that occasionally go in entirely different directions. Azbaek has those seedy eyes that can’t help but tap into the uncertainties of the audience, and Messina’s scene-stealing charisma without comedic emphasis proves his turn in last year’s “The Boogeyman” wasn’t a one time fluke, providing him with the kind of scene-stealing magnitism and emotional depth that serves as the unofficial protagonist to the proceedings, at least in my version of the film.

NEGATIVES

That seems like a pretty good area to transition to my disagreements with the execution of the film, primarily with some creative decisions that hindered the growth of such a compelling idea in plot. For starters, the entirety of the film, but primarily during the first act, falls victim to its 90 minute run time, with abrupt pacing that arduously undercuts the natural developments of the arcs that casually hang in the balance. Considering the conflict materializes after barely two days on the ship, it offers us little time to live and grow within these various dynamics, and as a result directly undercuts our accessibility to their respective plights, which the film itself couldn’t care much to learn things that could be found on a Wikipedia summarized version of each of the six characters. This is especially the worst case scenario for DeBose’s chosen protagonist, whom we not only learn so little about as a result of shallow exploration, but also one who remains faithful to the set-up of her outline, in turn making her the blandest of all of the characters assembled for such an outing. DeBose herself does the best she can with the limitations of material, but she can’t appraise interests towards a film that can’t be bothered to give her the time of day, leaving her talents wasted for an outline too thin to even be one-dimensional. Beyond rushed and underwhelming execution, the script too often frames its twists clumsily as either being telegraphed from miles away, or deflating in momentum for how it chooses to prematurally reveal such deception. Anyone will tell you that the keys to great reveals are suspense in building tension, and impact in delivery, and this film very rarely has either, often spoiling the various betrayals before the measures in magnitude had a chance to mature into something special for the way they’re variously unloaded. If the film’s editing didn’t go out of its way to focus a bit longer on a character’s reaction, or frame them in such unappealing ways, then maybe their shift in attitudes wouldn’t feel clumsily telegraphed to the point of waiting for the film to catch up to the knowledge of the audience, but as a result it underscores the fun factor and drama of the engagement, which lead to one of the most cornered climaxes that I can remember from a film in recent memory. While I can wholeheartedly understand what the intention was with its final shot, especially with the imagery so forcefully spoon-feeding this sentiment into our minds, it still doesn’t escape the fact that “I.S.S” has such an abruptly underwhelming final moments that will unfortunately and inevitibly lead to many people dropping it as much as a whole letter grade from a film that feels like it stops shooting, instead of rightfully ends. Part of the disappointment rightfully stems from the final momentous blow coming with another five minutes in the film’s duration, as it momentarily wastes away the momentum of the climax with each passing minute, but I think so many questions and various subplots not receiving satisfying closure is the deeper issue here, especially in how some of them create such ridiculously glaring plot holes towards the film’s otherwise grounded approach. Leaving matters to the interpretation of audience members is one thing, but inscribing three fake-out fade-to-black endings for a final moment is entirely different, leaving the film with the indecisive notion that its impressively ambitious idea didn’t have a landing spot to keep it free from casualities.

OVERALL
“I.S.S” is an exceptional idea with lackadaisical execution that grows the more frustrating with each of the film’s urgently passing 90 minutes. While the world-building and claustrophobic emphasis do more than enough to conjure the kind of earth-shaking momentum to keep it orbiting, the flat characterization and corner-painting climax sends it on a collision course with contrivances, where even the stars can’t shine bright enough to lead it in a meaningful direction.

My Grade: 6/10 or C