January is the time of year when, if you live outside a big city, there’s either crappy new releases to choose for or the awards bait that hit big cities earlier but only just gets to other markets in the weeks to come. But then there’s I.S.S., a thriller set aboard the International Space Station that doesn’t quite hit either criteria. It had already been released in Europe, but despite the “2023” release date, I wouldn’t call it awards bait by any stretch of the imagination. It could, instead, just be some oddity of a movie that could work out very well based on the premise alone: astronauts ordered to capture the International Space Station after a war breaks out on Earth.
The way I see it, it could still be something of a cinematic failure, but at least it will be an ambitious one.
Told largely from the point of view of American newcomer Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose), the set-up is basic: three Americans and three Russians are onboard the International Space Station conducting experiments. True, one Russian (Danish actor Pilou Asbæk) seems a wee bit intimidating when he and Kira first meet, but that may be due to the fact Alexey’s English is not all that good. Still, the idea is that there is no politics on the station and everyone has to get along while they are stuck in a confined space. And yes, at the start of the movie, that appears to be true. Five of the six scientists on the station have been there and back more than once and are all quite friendly with each other.
Then what could only be nuclear war appears to break out on Earth between the United States and Russia. Confused, both groups try to contact their respective governments for more information. Unfortunately, the Internet is spotty at best on the station even before the Earth turned to fire, and what little the Americans get is an order to capture the station from the Russians by any means necessary. They don’t know but do suspect the Russians got a similar message. And to make matters worse, the nuclear explosions are actually pulling the station back to Earth with no way to contact anyone on the ground to save them with an emergency rocket. The escape craft can also only fit two passengers. What should these people even do?
Credit where it’s due: this movie is highly effective for the first two-thirds. There’s some genuine tension as the Americans try to figure out if they can still trust the Russians, and each character’s reaction to the events on the ground is unique, ranging from blind patriotism to paranoid panic to just a need for more information before anyone acts. Kira is somewhat in the middle. As a newcomer and audience surrogate, it’s up to her to figure out how much she can trust anyone, including the other Americans. And I’m not kidding about director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s work here: this is a really tight thriller for a while there.
The problem is the movie can’t quite sustain that for the entire 90 minute or so runtime. At a certain point, the movie starts to fall apart, becoming more predictable as it goes. The movie’s symbolism is never subtle, but it becomes more obvious as the last twenty or so minutes play out. I will say it does play well with the casting of one actor–casting against type in this case–and the performances are all uniformly good. The real problem is once the mystery is gone, there isn’t a whole lot to keep that tension going. I.S.S. is still a strong movie for the first hour. It’s the last half hour that is something of a disappointment.
Grade: C+
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