“Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say
that we devise their misery. But they
themselves- in their depravity- design
grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.”
― Homer, The Odyssey
Pulling ones’ self up by bootstraps is a myth. It can’t be done. The phrase refers to a metaphor speaking to the impossible task of uplifting your own self out of a trap using only your bootstraps. Anyone who tells you that they’ve built something on their own, who did it through bootstrapping, probably doesn’t acknowledge the training they received, the tools they developed, the funding they acquired, and any number of other measures taken to get where they are through the participation of others. In a world that’s essentially full of “alpha male” bullshit, the preening bastards who proclaim this lie are not going to be your salvation because they can’t see within themselves the traps they’ve created for them to fall into. This is a catalytic element of the new Gerard Johnson (Hyena) thriller Odyssey, premiering during the Visions section of SXSW 2025. Johnson sends the audience on an adventure set across five days from which the central character is forever changed and the notions of success are challenged.
It’s an important week for Natasha Flynn (Polly Maberly). This is the week that she meets with Dom (Daniel De Bourg) about merging real estate firms, the first step in her planned expansion. Problem is that she’s not as liquid as she planned to be and debts are coming due right as she’s on the cusp of everything she’s worked for. Seeking an additional loan from a businessman she knows, Dan (Guy Burnet), seems like the easy solution, but nothing’s ever easy in finance, a lesson she learns fast and hard, requiring inventive solutions from an old friend known as The Viking (Mikael Persbrandt) to get back on track.
Via the script by Johnson and first-time screenwriter Austin Collings, Odyssey places us right with Natasha as her week starts in (at least from my perspective) the worst possible place, immediately placing Natasha in a state of psychological dysregulation in several ways, and gets worse from there. That we then follow her as she goes to work, taking on a mentee (who becomes the audience proxy and the in-world method for justifying some exposition) and juggling the personalities in her small business, Flynn’s Estates, Maberly invests us quickly in the complexity of Natasha, a business woman whose demeanor conveys someone trying to hold her ground in a male-dominated industry. Maberly creates a sense quickly of a character with little time for bullshit, which includes projects from her team that she doesn’t understand from their perspective, leading to additional tension in an already loaded week. Intentionally or not, by centering Natasha and having us follow her extensively, Johnson and Collings, through Maberly’s performance, present several ways in which women, no matter their skill set, remain subject to the whims of misogynists, regardless of her stature compared to their own. It’s one thing to be personable with your employees (or “team,” as she refers to them, since she hates the word “employee”), but the way that one specific team member speaks to her reeks of misplaced worth and influence. In another scene involving Dan, his conversation with Natasha regarding the additional loan turns physical, Natasha flashing the briefest disdain for the physical intrusion by Dan before delicately redirecting him. Like so many other instances in which those around her seek to control or cajole her, they all possess some element of misogyny, reminding Natasha that no matter how far along she gets, she’ll always be a woman. As if this fact somehow makes her lesser.
Polly Maberly as Natasha Flyn in ODYSSEY. Photo courtesy of Electric Shadow Company/SXSW.
While the film directly speaks to the way the world responds to Natasha, indirectly, Odyssey offers a statement on the horrid state of the housing market. Though the narrative is based in London, just about everywhere in the known world is dealing with some issue of communities pricing out their citizenry, requiring that the agents, estate brokers, and account managers to get creative in their sales. It’s not just the obvious stuff, like choosing “peaceful” to describe a remote property or “minimal” to describe a tiny bathroom, the things that we, as consumers, expect marketers to use when trying to convince us to rent/sublet/purchase from them. It’s timing showings during precise parts of the day so that an apartment can be described as “quiet,” when, in fact, a neighbor loves blaring their music late in the night. It’s hiding the total costs of a place, whether that cost is paid with your time, your money, or your energy. The process of getting a place is exhausting, especially now when everyone wants a place to call home and too few can afford it. Clearly, Johnson and Collings use the various slight-of-hand tactics that Natasha and her team use to sell/lease properties as a means of highlighting Natasha’s ethics, her lines in the sand, as it where, while also creating the opportunity necessary for a triumphant and bloody final act.
With a title like Odyssey, the narrative is quite the adventure for Natasha and the audience. Thanks to the frequent fish-eye lens from cinematographer Korsshan Schlauer (Get Luke Lowe) we, the audience, often get the same sense of enclosure that Natasha must be feeling by the trials she’s enduring in this most important week. The choice to visually convey Natasha’s confinement enhances the tension as it creates the sense that, regardless of proximity to others, inside or outside, Natasha is under intense pressure and psychological confinement. What transpires as things grow beyond control is truly the only way out for someone who demands only the best for themselves and none of the weaknesses. By the end of the adventure, there hangs a question about whether or not it’s worth it or, to a degree, even real. Not in an American Psycho (2000) false narrative/fake reality manner, but as to whether the pressure of these five days took a greater toll than it first seems.
One thing is absolutely certain, there’s nothing that any of the so-called “alphas,” even Natasha herself, can proclaim as their own and having achieved it solo. It’s only by the contributions of others that anyone is successful. Anyone tells you something different, don’t buy what they’re selling.
Screening during SXSW 2025.
For more information, head to the official SXSW Odyssey webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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