Freeze Frame: “Origin” (R), “I.S.S.” (R), “Freud’s Last Session” (PG-13), “True Detective: Night Country” (TV-MA)

Ava DuVernay’s earnest and thoughtful drama “Origin” focuses on the multiple personal traumas that prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson endured as she wrote and researched her nonfiction bestseller, “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents.” Anjanue Ellis Taylor is excellent in the lead role and while the movie is sometimes frustratingly repetitious and preachy, it makes an effective case for Wilkerson’s worldview about systemic class and racial divisions.

In the space opus “I.S.S.”, three American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts manning the International Space Station turn on one another when a war breaks out on Earth. Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina lead the cast in this workmanlike thriller that has a few claustrophobic chills. In spite of the heavy subject matter, “I.S.S.” is surprisingly weightless.

Sir Anthony Hopkins plays the father of modern psychology Sigmund Freud and Matthew Goode portrays lauded author C.S. Lewis in the speculative drama, “Freud’s Last Session.” It imagines what a conversation might have been like between the agnostic Freud and Christian intellectual Lewis. “Freud’s Last Session” has a gifted cast and a great premise, but never come close to fulfilling the promise of this intriguing setup.

Oscar-winner Jodi Foster and former pro boxer Kali Reis star in the Max drama series “True Detective: Night Country.” It marks the fourth season for the popular franchise. This new dark and extremely lurid story involves a strange case where several scientists inexplicably disappear from an Alaskan research station. “True Detective: Night Country” is creepy and off-putting but is an effectively made chiller.


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