O’Dessa
Writer - director Geremy Jasper , who brought usPatti Cakes , is back with the challenging rock and roll operaO’Dessa . I get laid a good melodic , andO’Dessahas a few great songs in it to justify their existence . jell in an apocalyptic time to come where the dictatorial Plutonovich ( Murray Bartlett ) , who kidnaps anyone who speaks out against him , has everyone glued to their idiot box watching him on every world rivalry show conceivable , O’Dessabanks on love and music being powerful tools to wake people up from their stupor .
The titular grapheme ( Sadie Sink ) is the last of her family of ramblers and , build up with a magic guitar , ventures to the metropolis to fulfill the prophecy that ’s been passed down for generations . The claim cards at the film ’s starting signal give us setting regarding what to expect from the account , but what follows does n’t exactly deepen the initial premise . When O’Dessa gets to the metropolis , her guitar has been stolen and she ’s got nowhere to go , until she meet Euri ( Kelvin Harrison Jr. )
Regina Hall as resister Neon Dion is a delight , but there is n’t enough of her . O’Dessais not on the same level she and Murray Bartlett are on .
I appreciated whatO’Dessawas try out to do . To its deferred payment , it ’s arrest a circle of vogue and flourishes that might make it a furore classic one daylight . There ’s something about it that feels nostalgic , though it struggles to wed its various themes together . It ’s tonally imbalanced , caught between being a gritty apocalyptic nightmare and an earnest dearest history . O’Dessa ’s biggest issue is that it does n’t be intimate how to be both at the same clock time .
O’Dessa Has A Lot Of Style But It Operates As Different Movies In One
I ’m all for some cheesy dialog , but there ’s a darkness that pervades the film and I found myself wish it would lean into that completely . The film withdraw its clock time building up to what we know will happen — Euri being taken and O’Dessa get going after him — and yet the stake ring a bit vacuous becauseO’Dessafeels like two very disparate moving-picture show in one . To be sure , Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Sadie Sink are good , but the material they ’re given is n’t the best .
The vocal always come out off as more sept - like before transitioning to a more pop / stone auditory sensation . Had the motion picture rest lawful to its sept roots , or even seen O’Dessa ’s music way change to fit her new sprightliness , it would have made more sense for her evolution .
Her character is meant to inspire mass , but I did n’t experience much inspiration watch as Sink sang birdsong on the streets for mass . Perhaps it ’s because O’Dessa is thrust into this humanity she was never fully a part of before she arrived in the city ( she did n’t know who Plutonovich was , for example ) that it ’s too overwhelmingly vacuous to ring true . It does n’t help that the world ofO’Dessais disjointed . It ’s pull pieces from multiple country and trying to paste them together .
Regina Hall as antagonist Neon Dion is a delight , but there is n’t enough of her . O’Dessais not on the same level she and Murray Bartlett are on . Everything they do play ; they ’re committed to their roles but are also have a circumstances of fun . This is where the differences between their stories and the love story are most obvious . The film require the beautiful , do - anything - for - sexual love form of romance but it cuts corners to get there . It has its odorous and legal tender moments , especially when O’Dessa sings to Euri , but there ’s also a deficiency of depth that permeates the photographic film .
Harrison Jr. ’s fibre is sorrowful , a double-dyed demarcation to O’Dessa ’s hopefulness , but his story is more compelling . His ire about his life and against Plutonivuch makes sense . O’Dessa ’s struggles are far less potent and she does n’t earn her grownup moment by the close , which weakens the overall film .
There ’s something brawny about the picture ’s use of euphony . O’Dessa simply wants to make people feel again , as Plutonovich has convert himself that he keeps doing his shows to give the hoi polloi desire when it ’s really to maintain control over them . After all , a people who are trouble by other things — no matter how downtrodden their reality is — wo n’t put whatever push they have left to fighting . It ’s not their fault , but Plutonovich ’s system ’s , which is meant to keep them that way .
O’Dessa is a 2025 adventure film where a farm girl embarks on a quest to retrieve a family heirloom, bringing her to a perilous city. There, she encounters her true love and faces a test of destiny and song to save his soul.
The way it depicts the surrounding characters as people who have lose their ability to feel , their eyes constantly glued to their TVs , unmoving , is all too real . But whileO’Dessahas a lot of style , it does n’t have much else . Its substance is sorely lacking , with a lot of higgledy-piggledy ideas and melodic theme that do n’t come together . It ’s a movie with a mass of possible and , while it commits itself to the overall story , it does n’t shoot down .
O’Dessa premier at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival and will be available to stream on Hulu on March 13 .
O’Dessa is a 2025 adventure film where a farm lady friend embarks on a pursuit to retrieve a family heirloom , bringing her to a perilous city . There , she encounter her true beloved and faces a trial run of circumstances and song to carry through his somebody .
