Neon debuted the new official trailer for Origin, the drama film starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as journalist Isabel Wilkerson, the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
It is based upon Wilkerson’s 2020 book titled Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Also starring in the film are Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts Emily Yancy, Finn Wittrock, Victoria Pedretti, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Carlos Blaaker, Vera Farmiga, Audra Mcdonald, Connie Nielsen, Blair Underwood, Nick Offerman, Stephanie March, and Myles Frost
Release Date
Directed by Ava DuVernay, Origin, opens in theaters with a release date of January 19, 2024
Synopsis
While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable loss and uncovers the beauty of love and human resilience. Inspired by the New York Times best-seller “Caste” and starring Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”), Origin explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance and a fight for our future.
Reviews
Giving the film 3 1/2 stars of 5 in their review, Slant Magazine wrote, “DuVernay’s attempt to fuse Wilkerson’s theoretical perspective with the emotional resonance of a melodrama is audacious, and it works to make Caste’s ideas more palatable to a mass audience. Thanks to Ellis-Taylor’s unflappable performance, the theories that Wilkerson laid out in her book emerge with an emotional clarity that can be forceful, but the film’s often inelegant, choppy structure also works against that clarity. Aptly or not, Origin is not unlike our complicated nation for feeling at odds with itself.”
Time review also lauded Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s performance, writing “Ellis-Taylor gives a potent but understated performance. She makes us see the determination behind an undertaking as daunting as the writing of Caste must have been. But she also shows us a human being in crisis, a woman whose sadness hangs about her like an invisible aura. Origin works as a visual summation of Wilkerson’s ideas. But it’s also a movie about a woman striving to bring her ideas to the world, even in the midst of her own personal crisis. The life we plan and hope for is rarely the life we get. Origin is an exhortation to use every heartbeat wisely.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for Origin.