
I.S.S. movie review: burns up on reentry
It looks amazing and the cast is fab, but while this could-happen-tomorrow story wants to appropriate the magic of science fiction, it fails to think imaginatively about longstanding human problems.

It looks amazing and the cast is fab, but while this could-happen-tomorrow story wants to appropriate the magic of science fiction, it fails to think imaginatively about longstanding human problems.

Apocalyptically sorta-satirical, bone-deep terrifying slap in the face that humanity has properly earned. Formidable, intense… and funny, in a very dry way that is nevertheless difficult to laugh at.

Filmmaker Amy Seimetz evokes a taut, cursed mundanity, an allegorical contemplation of culture at its most basic level: when it fails and everyone is hopeless. Accidentally hits our pandemic mood.

The heightened emotions and outrageous urgency of rom-coms are actually appropriate here. All the absurdities that define the genre — not accidentally but deliberately — suddenly work in its favor.