I.S.S.

There have been several films that have involved small enclosed situations where compromises are evident and trust becomes tested severely in some cases. Films such as "Life"," Alien", "Event Horizon", "Silent Running", "Alive" all come to mind. Of course, it all started with "Lifeboat" about people stricken to a lifeboat, however there ends up being too many people in the boat, so it boils down to which ones will have to sacrifice so everyone else can survive. Well, now we have "I.S.S." to add to that list.

Tensions flare in the near future aboard the I.S.S. (International Space Station) as a worldwide conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling from this, the U.S. astronauts, Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose), Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina), Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) and the Russian cosmonauts, Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin), Alexey Pulov (Pilou Asbaek) receive orders from the ground: take control of the station,,,by any means necessary. This becomes a predicament whereas a clear cat-and-mouse game begins to ensue and the element of trust is a commodity that lessens by the hour. 

This film was directed with quite the frenetic feel by Gabriela Cowperthwaite ("City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story" '10, "Blackfish" '13, "Megan Leavey" '17, "Our Friend" '19, "The Grab" '22) plus TV. The way that this filmmaker was able to slowly grow the mistrust amongst the crew was subtle but riveting. They all start as friends, but by the middle of the film, people were forced to suspect, whether it was the other country or those of the same country--who can you trust? This definitively added to the suspense and frenzy of the film. It was effective written by Nick Shafir. Considering this writer had no other writing experience whether it be TV, shorts, videos or feature films, I was quite impressed with his attempt. The premise of this film is certainly a thoughtful one making one think well after the end credits roll, but there were a couple of places where the script became disjointed. But by approximately half way through, the story certainly picked up and became the film I believe Shafir was obviously looking for. Another aspect that created a bit of a claustrophobic feel was the fact that there were only six actors in the entire film, ala "Alien" which carried only seven actors in the entire cast.

If you like suspense thrillers, you'll love this, and if you also like films that pit people against each other for the greater good, this will an added plus. The directing was delineated well and pulled the audience right into the story. Even though the script was a bit disjointed in places, it was still strong enough to hold the audience's attention with ease. It's a real nail-biter!

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                        Rated: R                                        96mins.