The trailer for Obex looked right up my alley – quirky, fun, and just interesting. I was sent a screener and fired it up while also doing some photo editing but it sucked me in and engrossed me.
I admitted this in my interview with the director, Albert Birney.
Obex stars Birney, Callie Hernandez, Frank Mosley, and Dorothy the dog. Birney directed and co-wrote the movie with Pete Ohs.
The Story
The story for Obex is simple:
Conor Marsh’s secluded life is disrupted when he plays the OBEX game. His dog Sandy disappears, blurring reality and game. Conor enters the OBEX world to rescue Sandy, navigating its strange realms.
The year is 1987, and we meet Connor (Birney) and Sandy (Dorothy). Connor is a shut-in who creates ‘digital’ images of people on his computer. Being the 80s, the images are created, pretty much, in binary, then printed on a dot-matrix printer. #OldSchool
He is such a shut-in; he has his groceries delivered by a friend. She’s moving away soon, so he’s worried about how he’s going to get his food. The outside is dirty and full of cockroaches, which is a barrier that Connor cannot pass.
He finds an advert saying a company can put you as a character in an 8-bit computer game. He sends off his photo and some gestures to be included in the game. When it turns up, he plays, isn’t all that impressed and thinks that is the end of it.
The main antagonist of the game, Ixaroth, ends up in Connor’s world and kidnaps Sandy. Connor must go into the game to get her back, blending the game with reality.
The Cast
Birney and Dorothy are new to me, but they carry the movie very well. It’s always interesting to see a director act and how they direct themselves. Connor is a very interesting protagonist and an interesting person to follow.
He’s scared of the outside world, and I found myself sympathising with him. There are days I don’t want to leave the house, not because of the ‘cockroach barrier’, but just because I’m familiar with the inside. Inside good, outside bad.
The journey that Connor goes on is one that gives him an interesting arc. Sandy is pretty much the only thing he speaks (and signs) to, apart from Mary (Hernandez), his neighbour. When Sandy goes missing, he has to do something, anything to get her back. You are with Connor all the way.
Dorothy, who plays Sandy, is also very good. That’s two movies, with excellent acting dogs of late; the other being Good Boy.
8-Bit Dreams
It’s interesting that Birney chose the 80s as the setting and an 8-bit game for Connor to enter. In my interview with him, he said it was because that’s what he was familiar with. It also helped with the budget. Birney creates 8-bit animations, so he could do all the ‘special effects’.
Some of the effects are excellent. When Ixaroth comes into the real world, it’s done really well, like the entire being is giving off light, and it looks really cool.
The movie is also shot in black and white. This was to help with the SFX, as he didn’t have to worry about colour. It was also a homage to David Lynch.
Someone described Obex as ‘Eraserhead meets The Legend of Zelda’, and this sums it up perfectly. I know that Eraserhead is a decisive movie; some people love it, some hate it. It’s certainly not mainstream media.
I love Eraserhead, it’s weird, it’s unusual, but it’s an interesting watch. Obex is the same; it’s done in black and white, and it’s weird in places, but I was totally on board with all of it, no matter how odd it got.
More in Obex
I enjoyed Obex a lot. I know what you’re thinking, “That’s only because you interviewed the director!”, but no, that’s not it. We are sent a few offers of interviews, but when I watch some of the movies, I just say no.
I do this so I don’t have to shill. I’m not all that keen on talking to a director when I think their movie stinks.
I would give an honest review, and I can’t see the conversation going down well. After I had seen Obex, and I knew there was an opportunity to talk to Birney, I was happy too.
Having said that, Obex isn’t perfect. The first act is about 40 minutes long. Sure, it sets up Connor’s journey, but I would have liked more time in Obex, inside the computer game. Connor is shown a map of the game land, and there are the Swamp of Eternal Sadness and the Valley of Bones. I would loved to have seen these in more depth.
Overall
However, the reason much of the movie isn’t set in Obex was the budget. Again, talking to Birney, he made the movie on $15,000. After watching the movie, I can’t tell you how impressive that is! I’ve seen movies with a budget a hundred times that couldn’t hold a candle to this.
Obex isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, but personally, I loved how different it was from *insert movie title* 32: Revenge of the Revenge of the Original Movie.
Obex is not mainstream, but for me, that’s a good thing. I was engaged in a great story that has a wonderfully satisfying ending, and follows the journey of Connor as he rescues his best friend.
Because of all this, I’m giving the movie a solid 5 stars. Now, and I know it’s only March, but it’s one of my favourite movies of the year, and I still think about how good the ending was. You might get different mileage, but it’s worth watching, if only to support indie movies and great movie makers.
Obex will be on Blu-ray and digital on the 9th of March.
