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Origin
Directed by
Ava DuVernay
PG-13
2023
2h 21m
Drama
,
History
7.2
82%
97%
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The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
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Where to Watch Origin
Kanopy
Free
Hulu
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Disney+
Subscription
+4 more
Cast of Origin
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Isabel Wilkerson / Executive Producer
Niecy Nash-Betts
Marion Wilkerson
Jon Bernthal
Brett Hamilton
Emily Yancy
Ruby Wilkerson
Finn Wittrock
August Landmesser
Victoria Pedretti
Irma Eckler
Jasmine Cephas Jones
Elizabeth Davis
Isha Blaaker
Allison Davis
Vera Farmiga
Kate Medina
Audra McDonald
Miss Hale
Connie Nielsen
Sabine
Blair Underwood
Amari Selvan
Nick Offerman
Dave the Plumber
Stephanie March
Binky Urban
Myles Frost
Trayvon Martin
Suraj Yengde, Ph.D
Himself
Donna Mills
Mrs. Copeland
Michael "Spike" Topoozian
Sales Executive
Cristin König
Nazi Librarian
Franz Hartwig
Erich Kästner
See all
Origin Ratings & Reviews
Kevin Ward
July 2, 2025
An adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s best seller, “Caste” a sweeping exploration of caste systems, how they have shaped modern society and how they potentially connect. It’s a heady and heavy topic Duvernay attempts to make it as digestible as possible by depicting the author Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis) as she’s travelling the world researching for her novel and attempting to unpack these caste systems to draw conclusions and connections. While I’m not certain the narrative structure is quite as effective as a hard-hitting documentary potentially could have been, maybe the light touch is able to reach a wider audience. There’s some really fascinating and important revelations to discover, particularly if you’re not familiar with caste system.
Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)
Mark Kermode
This is the biography of a book... The fact that it works as well as it does, it's pretty remarkable.
Boston Globe
Odie Henderson
Not everything works - conversations that bring up thorny disagreements about race and class often feel protracted - but, as a whole, "Origin" is still fascinating to behold.
Los Angeles Times
Sergio Burstein
Origin is a sincere, passionate, and excellently acted film that takes us on a discovery, with wonder, of fascinating historical situations. [Full review in Spanish]
Salon.com
Melanie McFarland
In her fictionalized approach DuVernay exerts a level of craft, care and personalization that achieves something the most thoughtful and thorough non-fiction filmmaking approaches struggle to.
Detroit News
Adam Graham
Origin struggles as a dramatization of the topics and ideas that Wilkerson is attempting to distill into her work. It functions better as the origin story of a book...
Observer
Emily Zemler
The film embraces a tangible intimacy and a broad scope with ambition, and it largely works. It may make some viewers uncomfortable or frustrated, but isn't that the point?
Tribune News Service
Katie Walsh
[DuVernay] tackles this global story and existential idea with a certain necessary fearlessness, but more than anything, she brings heart, hope, and above all, humanity to this singular and searing text.
AARP Movies for Grownups
Thelma Adams
Origin's virtues are many: vivid characterizations, a global perspective and a narrative that plunges into the hero's journey of a brilliant Black woman.
ABC News
Peter Travers
How do you make a movie about an intellectual argument? By putting a human face on it, which is what Ava DuVernay and acting force Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor do in this stunning provocation about race and class. Here's something rare: a movie that matters.
Wall Street Journal
Kyle Smith
Even those who find Ms. Wilkerson's thesis convincing are likely to concede that it is more at home in the library than at the multiplex. Many others will find "Origin" confusing and dry.
Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Roeper
The resulting docudrama is one of the most thought-provoking movies in recent years - the kind of film you'll find impossible to forget, the kind of film you'll want to discuss and debate with friends and colleagues.
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
What the writing and filmmaking sometimes overdo, the actors mitigate beautifully. Benesch is a powerhouse of subtlety and focus, and the camera stays as close as possible to her watchful, at times disbelieving eyes.
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
The film moves elegantly through time and place, but there's no avoiding its episodic nature; some episodes soar, as when an Audra McDonald monologue pulls the camera in like a tractor beam, while others tread water.
San Jose Mercury News
Randy Myers
This is exciting, challenging filmmaking that works on every emotional and intellectual level.
Rolling Stone
David Fear
You will not find based-on-a-true-story uplift-bait. What this captivating, complicated, and oft-compelling movie gives you is a biopic not of a writer but of a book, from inspiration to publication.
Associated Press
Lindsey Bahr
With an unconventional structure... Origin is nonetheless alarmingly effective, a riveting and haunting journey to a kind of enlightenment.
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
DuVernay keeps hold of the reins of a story that gains momentum and cumulative force as its vignettes and Wilkerson's insights accumulate.
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
People stop acting like people and become vehicles for expressing ideas. In this way, a movie that at first seemed rough-hewn and passionate becomes doctrinaire and clumsy.
Observer
Laura Babiak
Plenty of movies are important, shining a light on underrepresented people and stories, but few are as revolutionary in scope, form, and purpose as Ava DuVernay's uneven but powerful new film, Origin.
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