Today on you're watching a movie with Silas Lindenstein

I'm talking about the new biographical drama

Origin.

Hello, everybody,

and welcome to You're watching a movie with Silas Lindenstein

I am your host, Silas Lindenstein. Welcome.

Welcome.

Today I am reviewing the new film Origin.

Origin is a it is a film based on the movie

sorry, based on the book Caste The Origins of Our Discontent,

written by Isabel Wilkerson.

It's a new movie.

It is now being released on wide

release this coming weekend of January 19th ish,

where it did premiere, I believe, at the Toronto

Film Festival and play that a couple of festivals in 2023.

So it's technically a 2023 film,

which is why it is

it's eligible for all awards for this past year.

So Golden Globes and and Oscars and such, which

I'll tell you right now is disappointing

because we've gone through so many of the awards

and it has been, in my mind,

snubbed for awards that it should have been considered on.

It should have been on a lot of lists.

It was named best drama by the African American Film

Critics Society.

But but other than that, it's kind of been

a little shut out and

why I could do a whole podcast

about why I think it is an incredibly powerful film.

I think it's

I think this is a film that could change

the way we see race

in this country, the way we treat it,

the way we unpack it all.

It is almost too big for the screen.

Somebody said why they should have made a documentary,

and my response to that was why? So less people could see it.

I do think this is a film

that will have legs and continue to go on.

And I think we'll be talking about this movie for years

when many of the films

or many of the films that have won

awards are being acknowledged are going to be very

maybe forgotten pretty quickly.

Okay.

So I mean, that's just my that's my opinion.

But let me let me get into the nitty gritty of the film.

It's PG 13 biographical drama.

2 hours and 21 minutes runs by really fast, though written

and directed by Ava DuVernay. Now

it it stars

and the name the names on here on Janelle Ellis

Taylor as Isabel Wilkerson the lead.

It also has Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash, Bates, Emily Yingst,

Finn Wittrock, Blair Underwood appears in it.

Connie Nelson It's Nick Offerman.

What a

lot of names that you see over time appear in this films.

It's like a

it's not a star studded cast, but it is a supporting actor studded cast.

Sure.

And I thought Alex Taylor last year should have won an Oscar for her

role in

was it

was the one about the Williams sisters

father. So

anyway, the story grappling with tremendous personal tragedy,

Writer Isabel Wilkerson sets herself on the path of global investigation

and discovery as she writes Caste The Origins of Our Discontents.

So the film isn't just

remaking or making the book out of a film

or making the making a film out of the book.

It's actually taking the events of her life

and her researching this book out of her

at the time and going around it that way.

And during that they do get into the explanation of the other film

of the book.

And so it does there's a part, let's say the last

half hour comes across a little bit.

I would say I will say almost even preachy five,

but almost more like documentary in the last 30 minutes.

But prior to that, it's about it's really opens up

dealing with the Trayvon Martin case out of Florida

and then rolls into the events that start happening

after that with the Trump election and

race in this country, how things were happening.

It's and to herself

she has to deal with the minor spoiler here,

just real minor but the loss of of of a loved one and

her coping with that is to throw herself into work

something she was asked to do and finally decide to do this

as she started seeing the big questions she ask, like, how is we?

We throw the bucket of racism, the word racism in this bucket we call bucket.

We throw in there, we throw in, there are lynchings.

We throw in there

that Trayvon Martin that's that's racism as well.

A black kid being killed by a Latino cop in a white neighborhood.

Right.

And not a cop, a security guard.

Police are.

But we also put in there affirmative action, going to schools,

structural institutional racism

and the question is, is it a is it bigger?

Is it a bigger thing than that, where investigate sort of the caste system?

And I can't

the movie gets into

it so well, as people don't understand what she's talking about.

And she managed to connect the going on

of that, the Holocaust

and the caste system in India to this and slavery in America.

It shows how those are all related,

interconnected how they

how how Nazi Germany use

the American not just slavery system,

but Jim Crow system to help set up the Holocaust legally.

And there's a lot of fascinating things that it really gets into.

And I would put it up there with like the documentary 13th

as far as importance of helping people understand some things,

I'm currently in the midst of reading while I'm doing the audiobook for Caste,

and it's around me a lot of the film right now.

But the film itself, I mean, you still have

the woman dealing with her loss and grief and getting into this.

Isabelle Wilkerson, the character of her, again,

played by Liz Taylor, she does a phenomenal job in this role.

Like I put her down as one of my nominees for

best actor,

for our local film critic, society, best female actor.

Just wonderful job in this very,

very nuanced, very powerful.

The ensemble in there between the her her husband

and other supporting characters do a wonderful job

connecting with each other and challenging each other

in the in the these notions that she has come up with.

And I believe the book even

got a Pulitzer Prize after double check that I know she's a Pulitzer Prize winner.

I think she won something before that.

I would have to look that out.

But I think the film is highlighted by

extraordinary acting.

The lead is just she's she's a fantastic actress,

I think is a thought provoking film.

I think the the

the directing is top notch.

I, I think it makes you think.

It makes you feel and thinking and feeling.

Those are the two things I look for when I'm thinking about

what's the best picture of a film of a year?

What films make me think and make me feel

at the at the same time?

And this is one of them.

That's why I would easily say as far as best films,

I think it's I think is one of the best films

of 2023, maybe in the top three,

top three or four off the top of my head.

It may have been a little lower on why I do a favorites

list, and I'm like, It's not a film that I

my favorites list is different than my best list

because my my favorite films are ones I'll visit over and over again.

Best can be just as a film, how it stands.

I think it's really important that the

African or Middle African American film

critic society is

is really

showing, showcasing it as a great film.

And and it is

I think is great too.

DuVernay The director directors, did a great job, I think translating the book

into this and the book and the life story

into this narrative tale.

And I think those are just the solid things about the acting,

the writing and the

the way the piece moves.

You are just all fantastic

on the downside, the downside of the film.

The only thing that I will say that the only thing

that walked away from the film wishing was that

I wish the last 30 minutes hadn't come across as

I think the best way they can use as preachy,

because that's where it

did falter to feel like a

like it might be a documentary, but it wasn't.

And we lost the narrative line of her grief a little bit

as we get more up into this incredible idea of the caste system

and she is dealing with another loved one who's having

a tragedy happen as well.

So this woman is just poor.

Apple was having all these things happen to her as she's

discover this incredible thing for

for society, not just not just for

just for herself, but she's really looking at society.

And like I said earlier in the beginning, I think this is a film

that could really change your perspective on how you're viewing

not just race, but

everybody's role in society, how we how and how we handle things.

It's one thing to have a movie

that lasts, but a movie that can change you.

It can change people and society.

That's a special movie.

And for that, I think this is a special movie.

I think the big lesson I took away from

it was not everything.

Not all the problems we assign

to being race problems are necessarily race.

They are caste.

They're they're part of the American caste system.

And if we are going to fix it,

you first have to properly identify

everything.

That's

my takeaway that that's that's a big lesson I learned from this.

And I think I would just say I don't think that I don't think

that that negates our view of racism in the country.

I don't think that negates the power of it and what happened in this country.

But I do think understanding the caste system

and how how racism in this country functions under it is

God awfully important?

Like we have to understand it how it works.

You cannot cure a disease

if you don't understand what's what's causing it.

You have to understand it.

And I think that's what this book or this

film will help you do it and then hopefully make you read the book.

That's how good the film is. The film was so good.

Made me want to read the book that is based on a nonfiction at that.

So yeah, that's that's that should be its own

rating in itself.

You know, is it Rewatchable

is a it's one of those films that I think you're going to watch it.

It's powerful.

Maybe watch it again to try to understand it.

You're then going to have a friend go.

You need to understand what is going on in this Watch this film.

Watch this film.

You may watch it again in classes.

I think it does, despite the grieving.

I think it does have a bit of rewatch ability, but also

I agree with some filmmakers that

you can only spend so much time and trauma,

and that's what

that's the downside of the film and why it makes it less

rewatchable is you can't it makes it hard to watch it.

You know, I got to watch it twice a year, maybe once a year, once every four years.

You know, you watch this less and less, I think, as time goes on.

But it's an important film regardless.

Um, and then,

you know, my

I think it

my rating scale will love it like it or lose it

I give origin

I love it.

I don't think that's a surprise.

I think I think you saw that coming right.

Okay.

I mean I don't know what else to say about the film,

but I really think you should go see it

if you are not just sympathetic, but if you are,

you don't want to just support black filmmakers

and want to and also want to understand what's going on.

This is a must watch.

Please, just watch it and please understand it.

Watch the movie.

Change your life.

Okay.

And that's it for this one, for this episode.

Origin.

Plenty of theaters this weekend as PG 13.

Check it out.

It will probably have a limited run, I'm guessing, because these kind of films

don't last in theaters quite as long as Marvel movies.

Right? So catch it while you can.

Hopefully, fingers crossed it'll still have

some sort of nomination

at the Academy Award when those are released. But

otherwise, thank you for listening.

Thank you for having that subscribe button and sharing,

if you would appreciate that.

Like subscribe all that. Thank you.

And thank you for watching a movie with Silas Lindenstein