ORIGIN

Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Victoria Pedretti, Myles Frost, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Blaaker, Emily Yancy, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Connie Nielsen, Blair Underwood, Nick Offerman, Stephanie March, Donna Mills

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor gives a performance for the ages in Origin which should not be missed. Writer/director Ava DuVernay has frequently tackled the subjects of racism, politics, and the systems at play with films and series like Selma, 13th, and When They See Us. Now she’s tackling the life of Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson whose played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. DuVernay sets her film in the backdrop of the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Isabel is approached to write about the murder, but she feels conflicted as its not where she feels her career is at after writing her first book, “The Warmth of Other Suns.” She wants to have the answers and feel a part of the story instead of asking the questions. Within a short time, she is faced with unimaginable grief after the death of two loved ones. It’s a time when she feels like she has no one left in life and pours her grief into her work. She starts to probe into the differences between racism and caste and the connection she finds between Jim Crow laws and Nazi Germany. In theaters

Here’s my review