A Cold War in space that needs to heat up.
The International Space Station, or I.S.S. for short, is the largest space station collaborated by five agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The movie “I.S.S.” takes place on that very station, while a war between American and Russian militaries have broken out. And this would happen to be in the near future. When else would it take place?
As the astronauts from both countries are busy performing experiments, they all discover the explosions that are happening on Earth. And therefore, the Americans and the Russians are forced to turn against each other, and take control of the I.S.S.
Now there’s a concept that could test our senses, especially since we know our history and watch the news, but it should have been more thought-provoking and less typical of the subject matter. It’s a small film under the guidance of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite and writer Nick Shafir and distributed by Bleecker Street, so it can be dating and original on a smaller scale. It just needed time to process a tragic nightmare like this.
There are six people on this ship in this movie. Three of them are American and three of them are Russians. The Americans consist of the Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose), Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina), and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher, Jr.), while the Russians consist of Alexey Pulov (Pilou Asbaek), Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin), and Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova). They all seem to be fine and dandy, doing their work without any conflicts. Unless, of course, one of them opens a bottle, when their gravity is off. Although it would be cool to drink those little drink bubbles. If Homer Simpson can eat those chips, then why can’t these people drink them.
But when the wars break out on Earth, each agency gets a message saying to take control of the I.S.S. That means NASA must take control, and Roscosmos must take control. Which means it’s basically the Cold War all over again. Only it’s not supposed to look and feel epic, it’s supposed to be tense, and that’s what I expected out of this movie.
The best performance in “I.S.S.” comes from Mashkova, who really delves into the emotions of a Russian bioengineer caught between something tragic on the ship, and then resorting to drastic measures. There’s a strong sensibility within that performance, especially the way her character interacts with her fellow astronauts and scientists. The rest of the actors do what they can here; it’s the script that holds them back.
You think an alliance could be drawn between the Russian bioengineer and the American bioengineer, until it turns out to be wrong. It’s all balanced on a matter of trust, and it goes off the scale. History has a way of repeating itself, and we don’t want another Cold War or anymore wars for that matter. Now that’s a scary notion within the film, but the story doesn’t excel in that. It ends up resorting to bickering and betraying, until it comes a routine conclusion that doesn’t have much direction.
“I.S.S.” has the potential to be a thrilling movie of the genre, especially if it was made by somebody who has transitioned from documentaries to feature films. Half the film is intriguing, while the other half runs out of oxygen. And I do not want to be shot out into space without a suit. I know you don’t either.