Trigger Warning: Photosensitive viewers should take precautions before viewing as they are several brief sequences and two longer sequences involving flashing lights.
“… to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable …”
There’s a long tradition of using stories to process reality. For some, stories are the salve which protects from hard times at home; for others, it’s a shield that protects from the horrors of the world. Stories have a clear beginning, middle, and end and are comforting in their consistency. Communicated in any form of the oral tradition, stories are also the way in which legends are born, passed down through the generations, frequently giving hope and/or direction. Having its world premiere at SXSW in the Narrative Spotlight section is writer/director Geremy Jasper’s (Patti Cake$) latest project, the apocalyptic musical opera O’Dessa, starring Sadie Sink (The Whale; Stranger Things), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (The High Note; Cyrano), Regina Hall (Scary Movie series; Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.), and Murray Bartlett (Opus). Using the sounds of Appalachia, rock, blues, and more, Jasper’s O’Dessa is surprisingly prescient, its themes and its narrative plausible as moves to prevent total environmental collapse are aborted in favor of capitalistic hording while the general populace is distracted by their respective drugs of choice, with hate and isolation leading the pack.
Sadie Sink as O’Dessa in O’DESSA. Photo by Erika Milutin Diller, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
In another world and another time, due to the actions of humanity, the environment was destroyed. In its ashes, a new world is born in which the denizens of Satylite City function under the rule of television personality Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett). But there is a prophecy of one who would free them when the time was right. Thus, this story turns to a small farm in the middle of nowhere with farm girl O’Dessa (Sadie Sink) whose lineage as a Rambler is acquired on the day she finally leaves home. Will her path intersect with Plutonovich? Will she be the one to cancel his program? Or will her journey as a traveling musician end on one sharp, sudden note?
A depiction of Murray Bartlett as Plutonovich in O’DESSA. Photo by Erika Milutin Diller, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Jasper’s O’Dessa is as familiar as it is unique. It opens with language that feels borrowed from The Dark Crystal (1982); it speaks of a dystopia in which the environment’s totaled but no one cares because they have a Dear Leader distracting them with entertainments of others’ pain (a la They Live (1988)). The art of music is presented as a revolution both personal and societal — all of which it packages in a tale that plays with gender tropes and expectations in such a way as to keep the audience engaged. With all of this going on, O’Dessa is, rightfully, a bit of a curio. Its depiction of the liquid which caused the ruination of soil and water, thereby polluting food sources, is referred to as “plasma” and is given a kaleidoscopic design — something which would be beautiful and mesmerizing if not for its deadliness, but that’s the point. Like the production and costume design which play with a futuristic, other feel of neon colors while grounding itself in naturalism, the colorful plasma is a substitution for present day refined oil while the battle for survival seems post-apocalyptic when it’s more neo-western within a past/future presentation, as if the Old West merged with modern technology. Put simply, O’Dessa bears qualities of a The Fifth Element (1997) techno world (advancing/mashing gender tropes and fashion in the process) mixed with the idiosyncratic nature of Six-String Samurai (1998) that exists within a simple prophecy narrative. As a result, there’s enough within the narrative to be predictable as various character motivations, however, it’s the execution that matters and it carries weight, weight that draws out an emotional reaction in part due to the original songs that course through the film.
Produced and recorded by Jasper and Jason Binnick (Patti Cake$), the songs played through the film are performed by the cast. Though some ADR seems obvious, especially in the introduction of Harrison Jr.’s Euri Dervish, don’t mistake that for a lack in the cast’s capabilities as it’s more likely a necessity based on the action going on in the scene. For instance, in Euri’s introduction, he’s performing the Dance of the Seven Veils and has an extensive veil/mouth covering that likely impacted Harrison Jr.’s performance on the day of recording. But if anyone’s watched his other work, such as the previously referenced The High Note (2020) or Cyrano (2021), there’s no question that Harrison Jr. can carry himself in a musical. For the lead of the film, Sink is absolutely uncanny as O’Dessa and is going to strike audiences who only know her work from Stranger Things as a massive surprise, especially since they may not know she got her start in a 2012 Broadway production of Annie in which she played multiple roles (the play is, like the film, a musical). Here, however, Sink stands on her own, capturing our attention from the first notes of scene-setting “Ramblin’ Blues” to the fiery defiance of “Here Comes the Seventh Son.” The songs are compelling in their orchestration and lyrics, but it’s Sink who makes them memorable and of the sort one wants to revisit outside of the film’s world.
Regina Hall as Neon Dion in O’DESSA. Photo by Erika Milutin Diller, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
So, let’s talk about this world for a minute. It’s hard and cruel, the world toxic, pleasures scant, and trust is afforded to few and viewed as a weakness. Defiance of any kind, especially toward Plutonovich, is treated swiftly with being taken to Plutonovich’s remote stronghold Onederworld, off the shore of Satylite City and only accessible by boat across the contaminated water, in order to be dealt with via a televised event handled like an episode of America’s Got Talent. Jasper’s script forgoes subtilty in its depiction of a society willingly giving themselves to a cult of personality, pleased to believe in something simple and dissociate themselves with the virtual drugs he provides via broadcast that work to subdue the masses, whether or not they ingest food contaminated with the plasma (thereby becoming his “Plasmatics”). This whole world would’ve felt like a standard improbability, a dystopian fabrication of a creator looking for a way to create an environment from which their hero can pull humanity up from the embers, except it’s not too far from the reality in the United States as its citizens exist in a state of hypernormalization. This term was created by Anthropology professor Alexei Yurchak, using it to refer to the paradoxical state of existence of perceived normalcy during the fall of the Soviet Union 1970s – 1980s. This concept has since been the focus of a documentary by Adam Curtis, HyperNormalisation, which seeks to connect the issues of the past with the problems of the present. The point is that the world that Jasper presents seems so impossible until one realizes that humanity acclimates (to some degree) to a certain amount of oppression, carrying on as much as normal as possible, even under authoritarian regimes. This is where the music comes in as a salve to the people, reminding them that freedom doesn’t come from some aging television star with a manbun promising you your heart’s desire from the TV screen while taking all the money from your pockets to line his own while you’re distracted: freedom comes from within.
L-R: Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Eurie and Sadie Sink as O’Dessa in O’DESSA. Photo by Erika Milutin Diller, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
There’s a rising sense of inequity in the world. That bullies who prey upon the weak are in power and untouchable. That they hold all the cards simply because they have all the wealth. It only requires a single voice that can break through the chatter with the reminder that it’s not they who are mighty, but all of us with collective action. At a time when heroes are not coming to rescue anyone, stories like O’Dessa may just inspire rebellion. Not that I think a film like this one can topple regimes like Plutonovich’s by simply being shown; it’s that there’s going to be someone somewhere who sees a film like Jasper’s, who hears the songs of O’Dessa’s musical rebellion, and becomes inspired to create their own art, form their own worlds. From there comes infinite impossibilities and the seed for revolution.
Screening during SXSW 2025.
Available on Hulu March 20th, 2025.
For more information, head either to the official O’Dessa SXSW or Searchlight Pictures webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply