When I think of the great realistic, space based movies, I think of ones like The Martian or Gravity or Moon. And after watching I.S.S. I think I’m going to have to add that to the list as well.
ISIS stands for International Space Station, and this one houses astronauts from the United States and Russia. And on land side, a crazy war appears to have broken out. And the movie’s basically about how these astronauts handle the situation, knowing that their respective countries are at odds. The movie is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. This is my first time seeing any of her work. It stars Ariana DeBose and Pilou Asbæk. And the rest of the cast is basically six people here.
The Good
One of the things that I really appreciated about the movie was how well they did the zero-gravity movements. The astronauts were kind of just floating around in space there, and a body. Something I noticed that they did to help with that suspension of disbelief was to give the actors zero-gravity-friendly hairstyles. And that significant because if they just had their hair hanging normally in zero gravity, it would have been just all over the place. Having the girls with kind of like a updo or the guys with short hair allowed it to be much more manageable and less of a special effect to get that zero gravity look.
The cast did a great job here too. I was impressed with everyone, especially DeBose, and Asbæk. They did a great job of just selling the scenario and the severity of it and the tension that could come with something like that happening. There’s a lot of camaraderie at the beginning of the movie between the Americans and the Russians. And then at that certain moment where everyone finds out exactly what’s going on, it’s just nonstop tension throughout the rest of the movie. None of them knew who they could trust since they were both on opposite sides of the fence.
And then you wouldn’t think that there would be a lot of action in a movie like this because of the setting. They’re in a small space and they can’t move around a ton. But there was actually three or four really great and well-put together action sequences that all involved real stakes.
There’s the one that the poster for the movie is based off of that involves an astronaut doing a spacewalk to make a repair. And the results of it are kind of similar to what you see in the poster.
The Bad
My only gripe with the movie is not necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted to see what was happening. Lay inside and what was causing all of what they saw from the space station. They leave a lot of that up to the viewers interpretation and what you might assume might be happening. And even the astronauts in the movie don’t fully know either.
The Verdict
So I really like this movie. I thought it was a really cool scenario and a great idea for a story. And it’s something that could actually happen in real life. This is my favorite movie that I’ve seen so far this year for whatever that’s worth. And I think you should go see it.
