This is going to be an odd review because O’Dessa is an odd movie. It’s a good, but not great, movie. What is was, though, was different.
Before I go on, you need to know that O’Dessa is a rock opera, a musical. I’m going to guess a few of you won’t bother with the rest of the review, but that’s OK. I do like a decent musical and this is a decent one, unlike having to suffer through Wicked!
O’Dessa stars Sadie Sink, Rithvik Andugula, Bree Elrod, Pokey LaFarge, Mark Boone Junior, Regina Hall, Marinko Prga, and Murray Bartlett. Geremy Jasper is the writer and director.
The Story
There’s nothing earth-shattering about the story. In fact, that is the main issue with the movie.
A farm girl in a search to recover a cherished family heirloom. She travels to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love. To save his soul, she must put the power of destiny to the ultimate test.
‘A kid from nowhere goes on an epic adventure and saves the day’ is hardly original. Set it in a post-apocalyptic America, everyone is glued to their TV, watching Plutonovich (Bartlett) brainwash them with a TV show. It’s like American Idol, where he is looking for ‘the one’. She’s the one that will break the cycle and free the people.
We meet O’Dessa (Sink) in her home, where her mother is dying, but they still love to sing. Her dad was given a prophecy about her becoming the one. He heads off to ramble, basically walk around and sing, and never returns.
Her mum dies and she sets fire to the house, obviously. She finds her dad’s guitar which was carved from a burning tree, and sets off to make her fortune.
A Love Story
You can’t have a musical without a love story. O’Dessa loses her guitar to thieves and ends up living on the streets. She sees her guitar in a pawn shop, so she starts to sing to make money to buy it back.
In one club there is an open mic night, and she ends up meeting Rael (Andugula) and they fall in love. It was a little woke though, Rael is very feminine and O’Dessa is very tomboyish. This movie is pretty weird anyway and it’s 2025, we can’t have men looking like men or women like women.
Long story short, Rael gets taken to Wonderland (I think it was called) where he has to dance like his life depended on it. His life does depend on it as, unlike American Idol, people are killed if they don’t win the competition.
You can guess the rest. The ending was a little dull, I was hoping for a bigger rock opera song, but it was a little lacklustre.
The Cast
Sink is a hot property in Hollywoodland, she’s coming off the back of Stranger Things and did a good job in The Whale. She could pick any role she wanted, which is odd that she chose O’Dessa.
O’Dessa reminded me of Phantom of Paradise. It’s surreal, with odd visuals, but I couldn’t help but watch it. All the visuals in the world don’t change the fact the underlying story is basically dull, but it’s still an interesting watch.
I also have to mention Sink’s singing. At first I thought she was dubbed, but when I investigated it turns out it is her singing on the soundtrack. Man alive, she can belt out a tune! Here is a musical feature from YouTube.
The downside to Sink is her haircut. In the opening of the movie, she has her beautiful red hair, flowing all down her back. When she burns the house down she gives herself the worst haircut in the history of haircuts. As I said, it’s 2025, we can’t have a woman looking like a woman.
The Music
I’m no singer, or musician, or have any sense of rhythm, but I know a good tune when I hear one. The soundtrack to this is amazing, with power ballads like it was the 80s, and catchy tunes. When I reviewed Wicked, I said there was only one song I remember, the end one, and now I think about it I can’t actually remember it now.
When it comes to O’Dessa, I found myself humming the tunes later, for a few of the songs.
In fact, I would say this movie has a better soundtrack than a story. The movie is still interesting to watch, but the music is belting. I will probably get hold of the soundtrack.
Overall
O’Dessa is an interesting movie. It’s not a typical Hollywood ‘superhero’ movie. The visuals are interesting and a visual treat in places. The fact that everyone in this seems non-binary is annoying, but I let it slide. Fine, I might be on a slippery slope, but I felt the entire style of the movie was weird so its not completely out of place.
The music is great, just my thing, and I found the songs stuck in my head afterwards. I’m still humming them now. It was nice to hear songs set to a guitar, not a huge orchestra or techno like the kids like to blast out of their cars these days.
If you want something a little different, with decent music, check out O’Dessa. You can find it streaming.
