Film Review

Origin (2023) — weak adaptation struggles to meld systemic issues with the visual medium

The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

Netflix’s decision to drop the film adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, a work examining the pervasive caste system shaping and oppressing societies throughout history, prompted Academy Award-nominated director Ava DuVernay to independently finance the film through grants and foundations. Titled Origin, the film serves as a testament to the power of diverse funding sources in film production, showcasing an alternative to the dominance of big studio productions. However, despite its noble origins, Origin ultimately falls short as a misguided and confusing attempt to adapt a non-fiction text into a cinematic format. The resulting film is occasionally tasteless and, overall, poorly executed.

DuVernay makes her first return to the big screen since A Wrinkle in Time (2018), writing and directing this adaptation of…