There’s something exciting about deliberately small science fiction stories. Sci-fi, after all, can be as much an intellectual exercise as an imaginative one. I.S.S., the new thriller from Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, sports a six-person cast and a single location: the International Space Station. It’s essentially a 90-minute Twilight Zone episode, a socially-minded “what if?” story about the absurdity of nationalism and the specter of nuclear armageddon. But, as much as that implies that I.S.S. should be brainier than your average studio blockbuster, there’s not much to it beyond that. Cowperthwaite successfully turns the I.S.S. into a sweaty pressure cooker, but what’s she actually cooking? Not much, unfortunately.
I.S.S. ★★ (2/4 stars)
Directed by: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Written by: Nick Shafir
Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr., Maria Mashkova, Costa Ronin, Pilou Asbæk
Running time: 95 mins.
I.S.S. is set entirely aboard the titular real-life space station, where six scientists — three Americans and three Russians — live and work in close quarters. The latest arrival, American biologist Dr. Kira Foster (Oscar winner Ariana DeBose), gets the customary initiation into the........