I.S.S.

Here is the decision in full. Gabriela Cowperthwaite has made a superb thriller out of almost nothing — one location, six characters, and a nuclear war raging on the planet below. The pacing is flawless, the camerawork immerses you completely in the station's zero-gravity world, and the whole thing proves you don't need a studio war chest to build something epic and thought-provoking. This is four-star filmmaking.

It also earns its R. The language is strong — including six "f" words and a profanity using the name of Jesus. The violence is intense: four murders, some of them close and brutal. And one character makes a brief, vague reference to having been engaged to another woman.

So: if you're an adult who loves a smart, tense, well-crafted thriller and can weather the content, this one is worth your time. If you're choosing for younger viewers, this was never for them.

Three American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts share the International Space Station, working side by side on scientific research as they orbit the Earth below.

A newcomer, Kira Foster, has barely settled in when everything changes: nuclear war breaks out between the United States and Russia on the surface. Then the orders come. Both sides are told to abandon their research and seize control of the station — by force. Six colleagues who trusted each other yesterday must now decide who they really are, and that's all we'll give away.

Four stars, and they're earned. Few movies hold this much tension and depth with a single location and a handful of characters. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite delivers flawless pacing from the first beat to the last, never letting the pressure slacken.

The camerawork deserves its own praise, moving through the station's zero-gravity environment so fluidly that you feel weightless alongside the crew. And it all comes without an extravagant budget — this is hard proof that an insightful filmmaker can create something epic and thought-provoking without a massive studio behind them or wall-to-wall computer imagery. A genuinely accomplished thriller.

For all its harsh edges, I.S.S. carries a strong moral center. Its dominant theme is loyalty — captured in the line, "The important thing is that we stick together." The film consistently prizes faithfulness to one's friends over blind obedience to orders, and it urges viewers to see the shared humanity in the people on the other side of a political conflict. In a story built on the machinery of war, that plea to recognize the person across the divide is worth honoring.

One note for viewers weighing the content: a woman vaguely mentions having once been engaged to another woman, who cheated on her. It's a passing reference rather than a developed storyline, but it's there.

The film's deepest instinct — that loyalty and seen humanity matter more than the orders handed down by a broken world — echoes something Scripture holds close. When everything on the ground is falling apart, the choice to stand by one another reflects a love that lays itself down: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

Cowperthwaite has made something rare: a small, brilliant thriller with a moral spine, all the tension of a blockbuster and none of the bloat. It's also an R-rated film with strong language and four murders, made for grown-up eyes. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Looking for something for the whole family instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.