O’Dessa
Set in a decaying, post-apocalyptic city awash in electric blues and purples, Geremy Jasper’s O’Dessa follows its eponymous young musician, played by Sadie Sink, on a perilous mission to recover a precious family heirloom and rescue her lover, Eury (Kelvin Harrison Jr), from the clutches of the menacing Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).
Rich in ambience and imagination, the film’s stylised dystopian setting is undeniably striking. The cyberpunk-infused Satylite City feels both familiar and otherworldly, with towering brutalist structures bathed in atmospheric lighting that evokes an 80s music video. The heavy use of neon gives the city an unearthly look, while the city’s vaguely post-Soviet landscape adds a tangible quality, blending the alien with the ordinary. Jasper boldly embraces the rock opera format, but its execution lacks consistency and the musical numbers struggle to drive the narrative forward. Certain sequences gesture toward grand themes of power and artistic rebellion, but they are introduced with flair and never explored.
Sink delivers an earnest and compelling performance, carrying much of the film’s emotional weight. She brings natural intensity to O’Dessa, even when the stakes remain murky. Yet the true standout is Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett), whose name unsubtly nods to Pluto, god of the underworld. Controlling the people’s hearts through his never-ending reality show and a vaguely defined energy source known as plasma, he exudes a theatrical menace. His villainous presence is heightened by the movie’s most memorable musical moment, Onederworld, a heavily autotuned, hypnotic track that is as catchy as it is ominous.
In many ways, O’Dessa echoes Hadestown with its mythic undertones beyond Plutonovich, as O’Dessa’s quest to save Eury mirrors the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice. However, unlike Anaïs Mitchell’s musical that integrates its mythological elements into the narrative, O’Dessa never fully commits to one framework or direction. Instead, it remains a sample of influences – an epic, a post-apocalyptic adventure, a cutthroat reality competition reminiscent of The Hunger Games, and a retro-futurist rock opera. Ultimately, the feature’s fundamental flaw is its reluctance to develop any of these ideas into something substantial. Like an unfinished song, O’Dessa feels like a collection of promising riffs that never quite come together.
Christina Yang
O’Dessa is released nationwide on 20th March 2025.
Watch the trailer for O’Dessa here:
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