Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s I.S.S. is a low-budget thriller set in the shoebox of a set replicating the International Space Station. The film sets out to be a slow-burn potboiler (despite a 95-minute runtime), where chummy colleagues are thrown into an international geopolitical dispute that sows distrust and paranoia. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) is greeted warmly by the crew of the space station, who hail equally from Russia and the United States. Her first day working as a biologist on the station ends in a drunken celebration and Kira looking out onto Earth’s surface. Weronika (Maria Mashkova) and Alexey (Pilou Asbæk) joke that Kira doesn’t understand the full weight of seeing the world from the outside, where you can no longer see borders.

The first 15 minutes of I.S.S. (and the last few moments of the film) harp on this obvious bit of foreshadowing: in the Space Station, there are no politics, no borders, no animosity between countries. That is, until war breaks out on the ground, and both countries’ governments relay orders to their respective Station workers to take control of the I.S.S. by any means necessary.

The premise of the film is just fine. It is simple enough that it could make for a compelling, barely political thought experiment regarding one’s allegiances and where one places their trust. Unfortunately, this film’s script lays everything on so thick that it is nearly impossible to just sit back and enjoy the chaos unfold. In most cases, it is not difficult to identify early on which character is going to follow their government’s orders and which will express doubt. And crucial moments of tension and suspense are telegraphed so far in advance that by the time we are meant to feel tense, the events are so clear and obvious that it only comes off as laborious.

For what it’s worth, Cowperthwaite makes decent use of the cramped interiors of the I.S.S., and the views from the outside, with a crackling orange Earth providing an ominous backdrop, looks great. The cast is also largely enjoyable to watch, particularly DeBose, who knows how to sell all of the complicated emotions of Kira’s unsettling few days on the Space Station.

The issues largely lie in the script, which is heavy-handed to a fault. Moreover, there are occasional logical gaps in the plot devices screenwriter Nick Shafir uses, gaps which would be much more easily excused if this were a pulpy thriller programmer that was not taking itself seriously.

Instead, we are given a film that is somber and earnest. The score swells after climactic moments of violence, in a way that attempts to link the bloodshed with pathos and emotional weight. The tone is all off here, given the viewer is also asked to suspend disbelief regarding every character’s general knowledge of the Space Station that they have trained countless hours to work on. When one character, in a pivotal moment late in the film, admits to knowing how to fix a life-threatening problem, it is a suspenseful reveal that is played so earnest that it would be more fitting in a masterful parody of this type of film.

I.S.S. ultimately wants to be a nail-biting action thriller with serious thematic material about how we are-slash-are-not tied down to our societal affiliations. Unfortunately, it is neither thrilling enough to be nail-biting nor developed enough to be weighty in its themes.

I.S.S.: C

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)