Hulu's O'Dessa Dazzles, Then Fails to Deliver

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Some movies just make you squirm. Not because they’re gross, or offensive, or covering uncomfortable subject matter, but because something just doesn’t feel right. You might not be able to put your finger on it while you’re watching, but it’s like an itch you can’t quite scratch, or a splinter under the skin you can feel but you can’t see. Something’s just off, no matter how hard you work to get comfortable.

O’Dessa, the new original musical film from writer/director Geremy Jasper, is one of those movies. There’s a lot of talent on the screen, some catchy music, and some wonderful visuals and design choices, but none of it ever quite adds up to something bigger, leaving us with a film that’s ambitious but strangely hollow.

O’Dessa (Sadie Sink) is a farm girl in a post-apocalyptic world where poison substances have turned the soil bright magenta and all the resources have basically run out. Though her existence is humble, O’Dessa is actually part of a long legacy of “ramblers,” traveling troubadours who, according to an old prophecy, might have what it takes to awaken the spirits of the downtrodden and change the world. According to her long-gone rambler father, O’Dessa is the “Seventh Son” of this prophecy, which means she’s the one who can put those gifts to good use, if she can ever get off the farm. When her mother dies, robbing her of her last attachment to the homestead, O’Dessa digs up (literally) her father’s ancestral guitar and goes rambling, as ramblers do.

She eventually makes her way to Satylite City, a rare outpost of the semi-civilized world in the wasteland, where the populace is essentially numbed to their circumstances by the presence of Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett, having an absolute ball), a charismatic game show host who hoards all the resources and essentially hypnotizes his viewers into submissive indifference. At first, O’Dessa barely notices Plutonovich. She’s much more interested in a blossoming romance with sexy, sensitive club singer Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). But the more time they spend together, the more Plutonovich’s right hand woman, the brutal Neon Dion (Regina Hall), notices the pair, and the closer O’Dessa gets to facing her destiny, and a confrontation with Plutonovich himself.

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For all its stylistic quirks – blending everything from Streets of Fire to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome to, maybe, a little bit of Rock-a-Doodle – and influences, O’Dessa is primarily a movie musical in the classic sense. Its story is not subtle; its songs focus heavily on explaining the emotional arcs and narrative decisions of its characters, and, to its eternal credit, it’s very much about spectacle. Though some of the editing choices leave something to be desired (this is a film that loves handheld camerawork, sometimes to the detriment of its musical numbers) and you can see the film straining against its budget at times, O’Dessa is a movie that looks like something. It has colors and shadows and recognizable character designs. It works hard to push the viewer into epic territory, from depicting Plutonovich’s lair as a giant godlike being seated on a throne to showing us acres and acres of magenta-tinted, poisoned farmland.

It’s a movie unafraid of big, broad brush strokes to get its point across, which is exactly what you’d expect from the story of a girl with a magic heirloom guitar who fights an evil TV host for control of the minds of humanity, and when O’Dessa is leaning hard into that blissful lack of subtlety, it mostly works. Everyone involved seems to understand the kind of film they’re making, particularly Sink, who works that steely-eyed, firecracker energy that made her a Stranger Things fan favorite to dazzling effect. Throw in Hall and Bartlett, who have a blast as villains from the depths of the wasteland, and you’ve almost got a whole movie. Almost.

So, what goes wrong? What is it about O’Dessa that makes you squirm, makes you feel like you’re not quite watching a complete, successful movie? It’s not the sets, or the songs, or the cast, or the visual style. It’s that, particularly as the film turns toward its home stretch, O’Dessa starts to feel like all wind-up and no pitch. It’s not that the story heads to predictable places, but that it takes forever to get to those places, and every interesting choice it makes – including its ending, which takes some chances with the format – is buried by rushed pacing and sometimes surprising timidity, like the film is embarrassed to take its chances.

It’s hard to pin down why the film does this exactly, but it takes a full hour to set up the impending final showdown that we all basically see coming from the opening title cards, and by the time that showdown actually happens, there’s barely any movie left. That might not be a problem, except that the showdown is so interesting that you’re left wondering why it wasn’t not just more of the movie, but the entire movie. The film’s good visual and character instincts can’t mask that the story instincts are just off, and that makes O’Dessa feel more like a concept than a complete film. It’s a good concept, sure, but by the time the credits roll, you’re left with lots of style points and very little in the way of memorable, tangible substance. It’s not a bad movie exactly, but it is an especially puzzling one, and that’s often more frustrating than a simple lack of competence.

O’Dessa premieres March 20 on Hulu.

Director: Geremy Jasper
Writer: Geremy Jasper
Stars: Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Murray Bartlett, Regina Hall
Release date: March 20, 2025 (Hulu)

Matthew Jackson is a pop culture writer and nerd-for-hire who’s been writing about entertainment for more than a decade. His writing about movies, TV, comics, and more regularly appears at SYFY WIRE, Looper, Mental Floss, Decider, BookPage, and other outlets. He lives in Austin, Texas, and when he’s not writing he’s usually counting the days until Christmas.

Hulu’s O’Dessa Dazzles, Then Fails to Deliver