O’Dessa Review: Sadie Sink can’t save this lame Rock Opera

PLOT: A farm girl in search to recover a cherished family heirloom. She travels to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love. To save his soul, she must put the power of destiny to the ultimate test.

REVIEW: Rock Operas aren’t an easy type of film to pull off. The operatic nature of them can be a bit intimidating as they can be a bit more abstract in concept. I tend to lean more towards them due to the nature of the music involved versus a standard musical. I like more soulful versus showtunes. So O’Dessa intrigued me by putting a Stranger Things star who does a lot of Broadway in the lead and putting her in a colorful, dystopic world. But is that enough?

Sadie Sink stars as the title character, a farm girl who decides to depart on a journey to find an old family heirloom once her mother passes away. On her journey, she has her guitar stolen and she meets the mysterious Euri (Harrison Jr). Sink is a phenomenal singer and the film makes the most of her range. But I really had a hard time connecting with her or her journey. The heirloom is a really weak plot device that feels forgotten but then the romance adds nothing of value. It feels like the film checking a box versus actually working out a genuine connection between the two.

And I know it’s a minor moment, but why on earth did O’Dessa just leave her Llama alone in the pen when she left on her journey? I get that she unlocked the gate but it’s an odd choice for your lead actor. Feel like it’s indicative of the problems that would come with her character later. Because it’s just odd choice after odd choice. Murray Bartlett and Regina Hall feel like cartoon characters and not in a good way. In a different movie, it would have been fun but this is trying to be far too serious for such hammy performances.

I’m a bit conflicted when it comes to the music. There are some songs that work and feel like they connect on some kind of emotional level. But I was taken out of it every time people were going crazy for a mediocre song. It’s also a strange mix of genres that didn’t work for me. They seem to miss out on the “rock” element and go for more slow ballads. There’s an inherent silliness to any narrative where music has some kind of mystical power but this just takes it overboard.

I really liked the look of O’Dessa, with its colorful yet not overly saturated landscapes. The dreamlike visuals helped me buy more into the world. It actually reminded me of the Street Trash remake with its visuals. It’s easily the best aspect. But even then, there’s too much repetition and a lack of connection with the world as a whole to present a cohesive vision. The filmmakers don’t have a grasp on when they don’t have the money for something and it results in some really wonky VFX/poor set quality.

There were some soulful moments in O’Dessa that I enjoyed, and Sadie Sink is a very likable lead, but little else about this movie worked. It’s hard to care about Odessa’s plight as it all feels so melodramatic. Time passes in a way that lessens the impact of any dramatic arc and can never get a grasp on communicating that with the viewer. It never seems to know what it wants to be outside of being bombastic. And that’s just not enough to warrant a feature-length film.

O’DESSA IS NOW STREAMING ON HULU.

O'Dessa

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post O’Dessa Review: Sadie Sink can’t save this lame Rock Opera appeared first on JoBlo.