O’Dessa Movie Review – Sadie Sink Deserves Better Than This Uneven Musical

Frustration. That’s the only way to describe Geremy Jasper’s O’Dessa. It’s almost maddening to see how it has all the pieces and nuances to become an instant classic, but it collapses under its own grand ambition. If anything, it’s a reminder that filmmakers need to learn the art of simplicity rather than try to be everything to everybody.

O’Dessa is a fantasy musical set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s a time in which everyone has lost hope, falling under the spell of Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett). A prophecy tells of a chosen one – armed with a magical guitar – who can liberate the masses from this bleak future through the power of music. This person is Sadie Sink‘s O’Dessa Galloway. However, her first trip outside of the farmlands sees her magical guitar, Willa, stolen. Oops! Now, she needs to get it back and traverse a dangerous world she’s never experienced before.

O’Dessa is tedious and overstuffed

The above summary for O’Dessa should have sufficed for the filmmakers to stretch it out into a 100-minute film. It’s a tale as old as time about the hero’s journey: O’Dessa is meant to liberate the world, but she can’t until she retrieves her guitar. The problem is that Geremy Jasper tries to get too fancy with intricate subplots, needless sidequests, and too much screen time on characters that don’t need it. This film desperately needed a merciless editor who wouldn’t be afraid of cutting through all the fat to get to the meat of the narrative, because this is a chunky movie that’s hard to chew.

For example: The entire love story between O’Dessa and Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s Euri Dervish distracts too much from the central plot. Could it have been cut entirely to streamline the movie? The answer is yes, or at least saved until the end where they share a kiss and warm the hearts of the audience. Instead, Jasper spends far too much time on pretty shots of O’Dessa and Euri sprawled all over each other, looking like it’s a scene from Euphoria rather than moving along the action. I understand the director’s intent is to show that time stands still when someone falls in love, but the stagnation doesn’t aid the movie’s pacing. O’Dessa isn’t a long movie by any means, but all the unnecessary fluff makes it feel like an extended edition of The Lord of the Rings.

O’Dessa boasts beautiful imagery and outstanding performances

What Geremy Jasper and Co. do amazingly well is create an imaginative world bursting with vibrant visuals and kaleidoscopic colors. No one can fault the design and aesthetic of this film, because it’s gorgeous from top to bottom. Just take a look at the trailer and see how everything pops and looks like something you’d imagine from the wild and wonderful era of the ’80s. That’s probably what makes it even more frustrating, since O’Dessa‘s story doesn’t match the stellar qualities of the rest of the film.

It’s tough to fault the cast either. Sadie Sink puts in a marvelous turn as O’Dessa, and it’s absolutely no surprise that every Hollywood studio wants to tie her down to every major franchise. In addition, she showcases her extraordinary musical ability that a lot of people might have been unaware about – here’s hoping she receives another opportunity to demonstrate to the world how acting isn’t her only talent in a better musical.

Similarly, Kelvin Harrison Jr. knocks his role as Euri out of the park. Even though his character might hamstring the overall story, that isn’t the fault of Harrison – but Jasper who should have written Euri better. Nonetheless, Harrison commits and unleashes a poignant performance that makes the audience care for his character and believe he deeply cares for O’Dessa. Much like Sink, he’s another talent worth keeping an eye on.

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Is O’Dessa worth watching?

No. O’Dessa looks and sounds great, but it isn’t a good movie. It turns into a tedious slog that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It’ll be on Hulu, so at least there’s no need to spend money on it. That said, I’d be surprised if the majority of the audience actually watches it until the end.