Ava Duverney has been a divisive filmmaker during the span of her career. Sometimes, her work such as Selma and 13th she knocked it out of the park, other times, like A Wrinkle in Time, she misses the mark. Her latest film Origin is back in that realm of hitting it out of the park. This is going to be a film people are going to be talking about more and more when it comes out in theaters. It was one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

Isabel (Aunjanue Ellis) is a successful author who is looking for an idea for another book. While this is going on she starts to have some tragedies in her life. This affects her process and she puts her career on the backburner to deal with the losses she is suffering from. When she finally gets her head back in the game she starts to realize what her next book needs to be about. She is affected by some recent events in the news and she correlates it to some difficult times Black people have gone through as well as indigenous people and Jewish people.

She treks around the globe interviewing people who can help her better understand what she is writing about. They give first-person accounts of things that happened to them regarding racism and persecution of the various races they belong to. This was an enlightening experience for her and it helped her grasp what she was truly doing writing the book. The book ended up being Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. About systemic racism throughout the history of the world.

Aunjanue Ellis has been having a moment lately as far as her career has gone. She hit the big time with her performance in King Richard opposite Will Smith playing his wife but she’s done some great work since that performance in 2021. Lovecraft Country, Justified: City Primeval, and The Color Purple have been some things she’s been in that were very good but Origin is the best performance of her career.

She brings a gravitas to this role, unlike anything she’s done before. There are multiple levels of what she’s bringing to the role. She had sadness when dealing with the losses she faced in her life and confidence when investigating this topic for her book. She was determined to show what was truly going on throughout history. I couldn’t have imagined a better actress in this role. She was so good it blew my mind.  I’m hoping more people have the chance to see this movie and her performance.

She wasn’t the only good performance in the film though. John Bernthal played her husband and had a few scenes that were very complimentary to Ellis. Also, Niecy Nash Betts played her scousin and she was very good as well. She brought a few laughs in an otherwise very serious film. Duverney ensembled a very good supporting cast to work opposite Ellis. They were all very good in their respective roles. Ellis is the star everybody should see in this film though. 

Origin is a film that is going to hit people very hard especially the first fifteen minutes or so. As a Floridian and a Caucasian, it still hit me hard. That’s the inciting incident that helped get the ball rolling for why Ellis’ character was wriing her new book. A lot of people are going to be affected by that. Aunjanue Ellis gives a great performance as this woman who is going through a lot. The rest of the cast are very good in their roles as well. Duverney has made a film that will surely hit the Black audience who watches this movie very hard. It may bring tears to quite a few eyes. That means it’s good and will move people in a certain way. This is a stacked year for awards so I don’t know if this film and story will resonate with voters as much as the audience it’s aimed at.

4 ½ 

Dan Skip Allen