Origin

Ava DuVernay's Origin isn't a conventional biopic. It's the story of Isabel Wilkerson's (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's) intellectual journey as she writes her ground-breaking book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, published in 2020. We see Wilkerson grapple with personal loss while meticulously researching and weaving together the insidious threads of racism that bind seemingly disparate historical events-American slavery, the Holocaust, and India's caste system.

The film's greatest strength lies in its ambition. It tackles weighty themes without shying away from unflinching honesty. Brutal historical reenactments punctuate Wilkerson's personal journey, forcing us to confront the ugly truths about humanity's capacity for cruelty. This approach can feel jarring at times, but it undeniably leaves a mark.

Origin stumbles a bit in its execution. The narrative structure can be disjointed, jumping between timelines and locations. While this reflects Wilkerson's own intellectual process, it sometimes left me feeling a tad disoriented. The film also leans heavily on dialogue, with some scenes feeling overly didactic. Think history lesson, not edge-of-your-seat thriller.

That said, the acting is uniformly strong. Ellis-Taylor delivers a powerhouse performance, capturing Wilkerson's unwavering determination and vulnerability with equal measure. The supporting cast, including Connie Nielsen as a sceptical German intellectual, adds depth to the exploration of these complex issues.

Visually, Origin is mostly a muted affair. The colour changes for present, flashbacks, historical events, and fictionalised episodes. The camerawork is steady and unobtrusive, putting the focus squarely on the characters and their stories. The score, a blend of melancholic strings and understated percussion, complements the emotional weight of the film.

While Origin doesn't quite reach the heights of DuVernay's best work, it's still a compelling and thought-provoking film. It's a film that will stay with you, prompting reflection and perhaps even uncomfortable conversations.

Origin isn't easy to watch. It's a movie that demands your attention and confronts you with uncomfortable truths. But if you're up for a challenging and ultimately rewarding cinematic experience, then this film is worth your time. Just be prepared to grapple with some heavy material.

Touching story but not really moved by the movie itself. Could be hard to watch for some. At the end of the day it was decent, I just think it was one of those movies that's more important than it's actually good. But because it's an important story people are gonna butter the movie up. Could've been a better as a documentary if you ask me.

The grainy sharp visual style, evoking an old movie feel despite its modern setting, wasn't to my liking. It's paced really slow and isn't engaging. It works on the assumption that you're already invested and care. It's like using puppy dog eyes. There are scenes that work but too few and too far apart especially in the first half of the movie; so the parts in between felt like a drag. There are few scenes and conversations that are memorable later on that make it worth a watch. But I doubt this is a movie you'd wanna see twice. The movie could benefit from fewer subplots, like the mother's, to maintain better focus. I think I'd have been invested more if it was paced quicker and had less things going on.

The biggest thing I learned about was the Indian dalits, called the untouchables, who're the lowest stratum of the castes in the India. The Jews, and African Americans in America. This isn't in the movie but Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea, the Hukou system of China. I think learning about them was what made the movie interesting enough for me, otherwise if I had already known about them like I knew about Jews in Germany or blacks in America; I would've been even more bored.

I wish it was paced better, it felt much longer than it actually is. For a good chunk of the second half, it felt like a wait for the conclusion. It's a very heavy loaded film and leaves you with things to think about and some learnings. It's a thought-provoking experience but struggles to captivate, taking too long to get into its stride.

The movie deserves much credit for tackling a difficult and complex subject -- the role of race in relation to caste in subjugation and oppression.

The movie examines race in America and caste in India as well as the Holocaust in Germany. However, it fails to mention colonialism, which oppressed one half of the planet no less in the early years after World War 2. This is a serious omission.

Even during the discussion of caste in India, the colonial oppression of India by the British that lasted till 1947 is not addressed. And it might be added, the British took full advantage of the Caste system to consolidate their rule of the country.

Heartbreaking and illuminating, all at once. You might think a movie about a more academic leaning book might be boring and dry, but this film is quite the opposite. It's full of emotion, as we get the story of Isabel Wilkerson's personal life and the trials she faced leading up to the publication of Caste, as well as reinactments of significant historical events that inspired the thesis.

Some parts of the movie lost my attention, but for the most part, I thought this was extremely well done. The acting was, all around, fantastic. The breakdown of the thesis at the core of the movie made sense, and the storytelling about the author herself kept the movie compelling.

I hope you leave the move also looking for ways to defy caste.

Great movie but the author and/or director completely forgot or ignored the plight and treatment native Americans from them caste hypothesis/equation, Seriously!? Why?

I would think Native Americans should have given some sort acknowledgment from origin standpoint as they were first to be "casted" prior to African Americans.

I haven't read the book, but the movie does feel like abrupt in trying to connect and transition amongst different story lines or historical situations.

Then summarization in the end is just beautifully done. But movies felt too dense and compact in terms of content as the authors personal life events and challenges were being tried to intertwined hit socially and racial complexities.