Sundance 2025 Review: “Obex” – A Surreal Quest!
Whether a film be grand scale or an indie gem, they can often be categorized into familiar boxes of genre and tone. Even film festivals like Sundance have evolved to expand outside of extreme independent films to feature movies with familiar faces and production companies funded by prominent filmmakers and producers. However, the original beauty of film festivals finds its identity every once in a while in the smallest of corners.
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Obex, directed by Albert Birney, begins in its own small space of Conor Marsh’s (Albert Birney) house that he shares with his dog Sandy. He lives secluded from the outside world only opening the door to accept mail and grocery delivers from his neighbor Mary (Callie Hernandez). In the paper he discovers an ad for a new game called Obex that promises to create a personalized game delivered right to your door by submitting a video about yourself so the creators can gather your information. When Conor receives his game in the mail he is brought into a new world filled with pain and adventure that he has never experienced before. Obex is a rare film that brings its audience outside of their familiar cinematic bubble and delivers a quest worth the destination.
It becomes clear the love and influence that David Lynch has on Birney’s film, even before he spoke about his love for Eraserhead in the Sundance Film Festival Q & A. However, his David Lynch style filmmaking creates a unique perspective, utilizing its sound design and visuals to pay homage to the filmmaker while developing a film entirely his own. Birney is able to enhance the audience’s understanding of Conor’s characters, distinguishing the closed off and quiet persona he has at home versus the determination and drive he possesses once he enters the game of Obex to save Sandy from the evil demon IXAROTH.
OBEX
Dir. Albert Birney (@simplysylvio)
NEXT#Sundance pic.twitter.com/6BJck4mkdm— Sundance Film Festival (@sundancefest) December 11, 2024
In this, we begin to see the evolution of a man finding comfort in the familiarity of his personal bubble while discovering the triumph of venturing outside to complete one’s own quest towards community and love. With the addition of the lovable character Victor (Frank Mosley) he meets along the way, Conor sees the the difference between the comfort of watching the world go by versus being the ones people watch.
The wide spectrum of film realism and fantasy in Obex gives it an unsettling undertone using the real and unknown to create the same type of uneasiness through Birney’s style. The constant buzzing sound design sticks in our ears throughout almost like being stuck in a room with no way out and no way to stop the sound. This gives the audience a better idea as to how constant loneliness and seclusion can take a toll on anyone, even if one is making the decision to disassociate from the world around them.
Obex is a nostalgic tale with modern themes of isolation in the face of technology and the grandness of the world around that can be both scary and breathtaking all at once. It’s nostalgia is not utilized to remind us of a “better” time, as the film takes place in the 80s, but through its use of computer games that had us glued to our PCs growing up. It pinpoints the focus and grasp these games had on our minds, feeling so drawn into the adventures and tasks to complete that by the time we finished the game and looked up from the computer, we felt like we conquered the world, only to see that it was only 3pm.
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The world outside is a beautiful place of connection and its own types of quests we must face daily. Obex draws us in just like our favorite PC games only to realize at the film’s conclusion, although we went through hell and back, maybe taking a break and going outside with our dog is just what we need to bring ourselves back to earth. Obex feels so small in its filmmaking scale yet is able to open up its story and style in grand ways some filmmakers could only dream of. It is the perfect midnight movie that will for sure become an independent sleeper-hit.
‘Obex’ Rating – 4/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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