Cheesy old low-budget horror and science-fiction movies were filled with provocative ideas about identity, society, sexuality, God and other concepts, but they typically buried these themes beneath fright wigs, fake fangs and the rubber hides of monster suits. \u201cI Was a Teenage Werewolf\u201d (1957) really was a \u201cchallenging drama of today\u2019s teenage violence,\u201d but that slogan was reserved for a prestige picture, \u201cRebel Without a Cause.\u201d Meanwhile, the Teen Wolf B-chiller was promoted with a poster showcasing a clawed hand and a curvy girl in a leotard.<\/p>\n
Oh, for the days of the drive-in. In synopsis (and with its awkward New Age title replaced by something more exploitable), \u201cI Origins\u201d might sound like a nifty little chiller, like something Peter Cushing might have made for Hammer Films. In brief, it\u2019s the story of a scientist trying to grow a new type of eye in his laboratory, to prove the theory of evolution. But what develops inside this Petri dish is an arty, pretentious and fatally self-conscious piece of work \u2014 the most wearying example to date of a relatively new subgenre we might label \u201cSundance Science Fiction,\u201d notable for such thoughtful indie films as \u201cPrimer,\u201d \u201cAnother Earth,\u201d \u201cSound of My Voice,\u201d \u201cThe Signal,\u201d \u201cSafety Not Guaranteed\u201d and \u201cUpstream Color\u201d: micro-budgeted movies that translated some of the thorny themes of literary science-fiction into cinematic terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Origins\u201d reunites the \u201cAnother Earth\u201d team of writer-director Mike Cahill and actress Brit Marling, the striking blond \u201cIt Girl\u201d (or should that be \u201cIt Came from Outer Space Girl\u201d?) of this subgenre (she also starred in \u201cSound of My Voice\u201d). Here, Marling is a supporting character; she plays Karen, the new lab partner of the story\u2019s hero, ambitious Ian Gray (Michael Pitt, the ill-fated Jimmy Darmody of \u201cBoardwalk Empire\u201d).<\/p>\n
A mumbly hipster of a molecular biologist (he likes cigarettes and geek-chic bow ties), Ian wants to demonstrate that eyes have evolved to prove Darwin\u2019s theory and to \u201cdisprove God.\u201d This is a contrived and shaky bit of motivation that fits Cahill\u2019s themes and programmatic plotting but is utterly unconvincing; it\u2019s hard to believe any scientist would be naive enough to think a single piece of evidence would persuade creationists to abandon their fundamentalist views.<\/p>\n
Ian opens the film with first-person narration: \u201cI\u2019d like to tell you the story of the eyes that changed my world,\u201d he says. (The voice-over is redundant enough to suggest it was added in postproduction, a suspicion reinforced by the fact that it eventually disappears.) Those eyes belong to Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), a model from Argentina by way of Paris who first appears as a mystery woman in S&M drag at a Halloween party. Ian is a rationalist, but the spiritual Sofi believes in \u201cpast lives\u201d and the symbolic significance of white peacocks; Ian says the only thing a white peacock symbolizes is a lack of melanin.<\/p>\n
When Sofi visits her boyfriend\u2019s lab, where Ian and Karen are trying to \u201cbuild an eye from scratch,\u201d she becomes pouty. (Apparently, this peacock fan didn\u2019t realize biologists work with animal species.) \u201cWe\u2019re not torturing worms; we\u2019re modifying an organism,\u201d Ian insists. \u201cI think it\u2019s dangerous to play God,\u201d counters Sofi. The heavy-handed vintage rejoinder (see \u201cThe Invisible Man,\u201d 1933) lands with a thud.<\/p>\n
The character dynamics are altered drastically by an unexpected event that essentially splits the movie (among other things) in two. The second half of the film pushes toward the type of reassuring \u201cspiritual\u201d speculation that would not be out of place in a \u201cserious\u201d Robin Williams movie, complete with a finale slathered in emotion-prodding soundtrack shellac courtesy of Radiohead.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe the eye really is the window to the soul,\u201d Karen suggests. If that\u2019s the case, the soul won\u2019t get much nourishment from \u201cI Origins.\u201d Cahill finds an occasional moment of grace (elevated train tracks, shrouded in morning mist), but this movie about eyes, frequently shot with what appears to be available light, is mostly dim and unattractive.<\/p>\n
‘I Origins’<\/p>\n
Rated R for nudity, profanity and sexual content. 107 minutes.<\/p>\n
Exclusively at the Malco Studio on the Square.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Origins\u201d is playing exclusively at the Malco Studio on the Square