O’Dessa which just screened at SXSW is a story we’re all very familiar with. A post-apocalyptic world, ruled by an evil dictator, with a mysterious prophecy promising that a young hero will rise up and save said world — that being said, it’s still quite different.
The “Rock Opera’s” setting is “another time, another place”, where we are introduced to the film’s namesake O’Dessa played by Sadie Sink, of Stranger Things Fame. She lives in the mountains and farms a mysterious oil-like substance, called Plazma, with her dying mother. The prophecy goes, “the seventh son of O’Dessa’s family will be the one to free the land with their music”, but while O’Dessa is indeed the seventh generation child, she is a daughter; but still, she is told she has power to be the one.
The film sidesteps this formality by making 19 year-old O’Dessa masculine presenting, because gender is just a label – an abstract concept in this fairytale, and this allows the film to add its unique spin on the formula as also we gender-swap some more of these more well worn character archetypes. When her mother dies in the opening act, we discover O’Dessa is the last of a line of “Wanderers” – a group who travel and lift the spirits of the downtrodden through song. This designation has the young woman channeling a fifties rockabilly vibe, by immediately cutting and slicking back her hair, paired with her deceased father’s magical six string hoisted on her back.
It’s not long on her quest the guitar is stolen, which puts O’Dessa on course to Satylite City, where the evil dictator Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett) broadcasts his hypnotic TV station that has the world in a doom scrolling death grip. O’Dessa’s quest is sidetracked however not only by losing her guitar, but her newfound love for a handsome cabaret singer/dancer/man of the night Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who plays the role of the sexy femme presenting fatale in this adventure. While the film bills itself as an “epic rock opera”, the musical stylings of O’Dessa leans a bit more organic/country and folksy rather than electric.
O’Dessa feels like a mashup of The Apple and Six String Samurai, with some Teen Spirit thrown in for good measure. That said, I will say what the film lacks in originality, it more than makes up for it in its approach to world building and the diversity of said world. The fact instead of the tradition male hero we have a woman, and her troubled traditionally female love interest is a black man, is something that definitely makes this story standout – as well as its defiant spirit. It’s something I know in our current socio-political climate will probably result in some conservative pearl clutching, given Sink’s Stranger Things Pedigree, but it feels organic and authentic to this world presented here.
While Sink attempts to embody the reluctant hyper masculine hero archetype however, she does so to varying degrees of success, not due to any dearth of performance, mind you. But costumes that are simply too big for her, making the 19 year-old Sink appear as a child playing dress up at times rather than the actual hero saving the world. While Sink can indeed sing, and she does beautifully, I feel like her musical stylings sadly, never quite evoke the same emotional resonance of her male co-star. Harrison Jr. on the other hand, is a powerhouse of song, emotion and chaos on screen, basically stealing the film out from under his co-star whenever he has the spotlight. He definitely has his Defying Gravity moment, which eludes Sadie.
The pair together thankfully have the kind of chemistry that’s palpable, delivering a relationship that will help you overlook some of the film’s weaker moments, solidifying the heart and soul of the piece. I personally think that’s a more interesting story than this whole post-apocalyptic narrative, but that’s just me. I also thought for a musical this film, possibly should have had more songs and maybe experimented with more genres of music. When all is said and done, O’Dessa is an oddly compelling, fascinating and wonderfully, weird fairytale that I hope will find an audience. It’s such a hard sell, especially given the current political cycle we’re in, but like its protagonist I think it has the heart to persevere to someday find those that resonate with this heartfelt ode to the outsiders.
