This winter will mark ten years since Ava DuVernay’s breakthrough drama Selma. The Martin Luther King biopic became that spark that drove the #OscarsSoWhite movement, while also establishing DuVernay as a filmmaker with something powerful to say. While she has enjoyed uninterrupted success creating Netflix shows and documentaries, Origin is her first cinema release since her big budget epic A Wrinkle In Time flopped in 2018. Happily, this new film finds her in the form that once made her the hottest new thing in Hollywood.
Based on a true story, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel, a renowned author at a crossroads in her life. Having suffered two life-changing tragedies, her contemporaries ask her to write something impactful after the murder of Treyvon Martin. Still grieving, and shocked by the killing, she refuses to resort to hand-wringing, instead going on a global journey to find the origin of America’s systemic racism. Drawing lines between the US, Nazi Germany, and India’s Caste system, she begins to unpack everything she thought she knew about race.
DuVernay is incredibly good at handling heavy subjects in a way that doesn’t feel like a lecture. Selma was all the more powerful because it asked us to view Dr. King as a person rather than a saint, and using scenes of horrific prejudice to show just how strong he and other had to be to stand against it. Here, she tackles more recent debates with some clear-eyed discussion. The film, like its lead character, seems determined to learn rather than rage. Isabel recoils at the (real life) recording of Green’s killer calling the police during his pursuit, but she then asks if it’s useful to call every crime of this nature racism, rather than tackling the societal problems that led to it? It’s a flurry of ideas, dead ends, and lost voices that make for a fascinating argument about where these issues came from, and how we can learn from the past.
At the same time, this is the story of a person. Ellis-Taylor is magnetic in the lead, playing a deeply intelligent person trying to apply logic to events that seem like madness. Rather than being a stiff academic, she also makes herself vulnerable during portrayals of grief, with DuVernay portraying loss visually in a way that is both agonising and beautiful. There’s a strong supporting cast, with Jon Bernthal playing Isabel’s loving husband, and Nick Offerman popping up as a plumber wearing a MAGA cap in one short but striking scene. Niecy Nash is a stand-out as Isabel’s cousin and confidant Marion, who understands the weight of Isabel’s work while still trying to keep her grounded.
Origin is an ambitious film from a filmmaker who has a very clear idea of the story she wants to tell. Not every conversation will be easy to hear, and some historical flashbacks can feel like an information overload. However, for those who want cinema to challenge them, there are few directors who will do the job better.
Origin is in cinemas from 8th March.