solarmovie : O’Dessa (2025)

Geremy Jasper’s original rock musical “O’Dessa,” which the director of “Patti Cake$” said he had been working on for seven years, is an honest failure. However, if you watch it, you can tell that it was originally developed in high school, if not even earlier. It's a movie that never really got to know any of its characters, didn't build out its world, and didn't have a catchy tune. It is a YA fiction project dressed up like George Miller. I like big swings a lot, so it’s admirable that Jasper and his team stuck with something so unusual until the very end. However, this does not imply that any of this applies to everyone. It can be difficult for artists to convey their passion to viewers when they become so involved with a world they only imagine and characters they have cared about for years. Jasper and his crew, without a shadow of a doubt, adore O'Dessa's narrative. I never did. The title character, a young woman in a post-apocalyptic world filled with scavengers and violence, is played by Sadie Sink. The Genetic Opera” energy, despite the fact that it never feels three-dimensional. O'Dessa's father was known as a "rambler," and while he was out and about, he used his magical guitar to "comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." The guitar returned to O’Dessa after he passed away, who travels after her mother’s death to fulfill a prophecy. She is the “seventh son,” the troubadour who will motivate people to seek a better future. She literally has only one personality trait that defines her. In what ought to be a story about a captivating savior, she is the chosen one, and further character development was not taken into consideration.

This results in a striking lack of personality. It’s not long before O’Dessa’s guitar is stolen by a group of wanderers (led by Mark Boone Junior), forcing her to go to the city to retrieve it. She eventually finds herself entangled in the world of a vicious enforcer by the name of Neon Dion (a wasted Regina Hall, whose attire and cadence reminded her a little bit of Tina Turner’s Aunty Entity), who works at an entertainment venue that hosts a singer by the name of Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). “O’Dessa” starts to unravel at this point. Is Euri a celeb? a target? Why is it difficult to discern what he is singing? The truth is that he’s just a cog in the plot machine, a love interest for O’Dessa, but their romance is vapid and empty. Although the performers are not to blame, it must have been impossible to develop chemistry with such insignificant characters. The plot and messaging of “O’Dessa” are shallow in every way. In a film that neither defines nor illustrates either concept, O’Dessa sings forgettable songs about “love” and “freedom” to kick off the revolution. The lyrics “free, free, free, free” and “love is all you need” are two of the songs’ most common ones.

Shallow messages expressed in a heartfelt manner aren’t necessarily a problem for a musical, but that requires the other stuff—character, world-building, stakes, etc.—to be deeper to allow the universal themes to cut through. Nothing here has any teeth; nothing hits the heart.
Even though "O'Dessa" has a low budget, its visual quality suffers. It would appear that "Max Headroom" served as the primary source of inspiration for the plot, which reaches its climax on a television show run by Plutonovich, a ruthless entertainer turned leader (Murray Bartlett is the only character who appears to be having any fun during this production). Even though a reality star who has become a tyrant might seem like a place where “O’Dessa” could come to life and have something to say, the script seems almost defiantly to have nothing but love and freedom in mind. Yes, "the power of love" has always served as the foundation for great musicals. But pulling that off requires something this movie never has: a heartbeat.