Now is an excellent time to make more thrillers about tensions between America and Russia. I’m not sure we really ever stopped, though I do remember the Red Dawn remake specifically switched the baddies to North Koreans because they couldn’t run the Russian narrative at the time. Well, now we are shooting So you Think You Can Dance alumni Ariana Debose into space. Yeah, I know, she won an Oscar. But she started on So you Think You Can Dance. #neverForget

Debose plays an astronaut we know next to nothing about, as the movie starts with her already on her way to the International Space Station. There, she will join the other two Americans (Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr) and three Russians to go where lots of men and women have boldly gone before. But, while these six are living in tight quarters, and everyone seems really cool with each other, down on earth is a different story. War starts, and suddenly both the Russians and Americans on the I.S.S. Are given instructions. Take control.

So it is a thriller in space. It is a film that really tries to make good use of the limited space and cast, and really does try to maintain the tension. The problem is, we know nothing about these people. In some ways, it is actually suggested that maybe we aren’t even sure if the directives are real. There are these little moments in the film the director chooses to do something that hints at a science-fiction lean, but the film never conclusively goes there. It’s like watching a horror movie where something goes bump in the night, but no one ever finds out what that thing is because there’s a different story to be told.

The acting is fine, this really comes down to the script and the direction. I think character choices are so important here, and the director being able to clearly convey their message. that gets a little messy with this, as sometimes things happen, or people just appear. It wants to thrill you, but it tends to cheat its way there to get to it, without ever offering a truly science fiction or horror lean.

The audio description was done by Deluxe, with narration by Erin Nixon with Jedidiah Barton helping with translation on the Russian characters. Nixon’s voice certainly could be more dynamic, but I would say this is adequate audio description. It’s rare that I don’t jump out of my seat over a Deluxe audio description track, but aside from the narrator, there were things I just had too many questions about. I believe it is totally possible that the director was working on a low budget, or just missed certain things, but there were things I wanted described to me. There was a moment when a character popped out, and I wondered how they got there. Like, where did they come from? I’m not going to drag Deluxe here, because like I said, there are ideas introduced in the script that never have any follow through.

For example, there’s this thing with the mice, where they just disappear. Where did they go? there’s no call back to that either. It’s not like we find the mice later, they just disappeared in their little container. Was that a suggestion that all is not what it seems? Or, was I missing something in the audio description? There’s certainly an appearance out of nowhere by Messina, that made no sense. Or does it, and the audio description just didn’t get me there.

I’m struggling to figure out what parts of this are bad writing, inexperienced directing, or just a really oddly ineffective script from Deluxe. The actors are really solid, and I enjoyed them in roles that were never given much character to begin with, but I feel like everyone involved either has made a better film, or will.

Final Grade: B-