O'DESSA (2025): Heady, neon-lit postapocalyptic musical fairy tale about rambling young musician O'Dessa Galloway (Sadie Sink, above), a greasy redheaded hick who falls for fey blue-haired big-city stage performer Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr., above right), runs afoul of his ruthless manager/madam/dealer Neon Dion (Regina Hall, above left), and must save his soul from tyrannical variety show host Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett, top) using her father's magical guitar.
Ostensibly a genderbent retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, O'DESSA recalls STREETS OF FIRE (1984), SIX-STRING SAMURAI (1998), and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2014) in roughly equal measures: a colorful, surreal dreamscape that makes little concession to conventional cinematic "realism" and is refreshingly free of smirking irony, but eventually feels a little too underplotted. It's compelling in many respects, although I was uneasy with its racial politics (any story that asks the viewer to root for a blue-eyed white woman to save a Black man from a sadistic Black women is going to be uncomfortable, especially when there are really only three Black characters with speaking parts!).
CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Strange and striking, if not wholly satisfying, greatly enhanced by its unwavering commitment to the bit.















