‘O’Dessa’ is a lifeless rock opera

Rock operas and concept albums are a time-honored tradition: “Tommy,” “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” “American Idiot,” you name it. Rock and roll is full of these extravagant, genre-defining works that reach euphoric, theatrical height, and push their listeners and viewers into the stratosphere right alongside them. 

“O’Dessa,” the new film from writer/director Geremy Jasper, follows in the footsteps of this tradition, particularly when it comes to David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust.” That album follows the story of an androgynous alien rockstar sent to Earth ahead of impending apocalyptic doom. “O’Dessa” is the inverse, set in a post-apocalyptic hellscape and following a young farm girl (Sadie Sink) in search of her precious family heirloom guitar and a way to save everyone from a megomaniacal dictator. 

“O’Dessa” might draw inspiration from the likes of David Bowie, but it’s nowhere near as electric. The film lacks the depth and the sparkle of its inspirations, with songs that are merely serviceable and an aesthetic that’s not much more than muddled, steampunk cosplay.

The movie begins with lime green text explaining how the world of “O’Dessa” came to be. The earth is a polluted wasteland and the center of all the action is a place called Satylite City, ruled by a man named Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett). O’Dessa lives on a farm and comes from a long line of Ramblers – traveling singers who move across the country sharing their gospel through music. O’Dessa is also the subject of something called the Seventh Son prophecy, thought to be the one who will save the world from Plutonovich and his cronies. She travels to Satylite City and – with the help of the city’s hottest singing sensation Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) – attempts to fulfill her destiny. 

When the first song in “O’Dessa” begins, it gives you false hope that the film might be able to follow in the footsteps of the great rock operas that have come before it. Jasper wrote the movie’s songs with composer Jason Binnick, and they feature driving, Americana rhythms that get your toes tapping and, for the most part, suit Sink’s lilting voice. 

But, the quality of a few songs doesn’t save “O’Dessa” from feeling like a cinematic endeavor with obvious aims on the one hand, but no real sense of direction or aesthetic on the other. The tension between O’Dessa (a guitar-playing, songwriting vocalist) and Plutonovich (a glitzy, glammed up dictator who forces people to perform pop music on television) is a very obvious commentary on the power of a “true artist” versus someone just in for the fame or money. People in Satylite City are glued to their televisions, and rebels are turned into mindless slaves via plastic surgery that gives them a very exaggerated version of what we might call “Instagram Face.” 

But there’s a dissonance between the level of perversion the filmmakers would like you to believe exists in Satylite City and what we actually see. It’s very PG-13 scandalous – rebels are bound with BDSM-style ball gags, and we’re made to believe a crime lord named Neon Dion (Regina Hall) is also serving as a pimp of sorts for Euri Dervish, although that relationship is barely explored throughout the course of the film. The violence is cartoonish at best, and any romantic or sexual chemistry between Euri and O’Dessa is non-existent. It’s all vibes and no depth. 

You could make the point that “all vibes and no depth” could be a description for many a rock opera – after all, the music is what’s really important, and isn’t a fantastical, dreamlike world with archetypical characters sort of par for the course? Even if that’s true, the problem with “O’Dessa” is it’s not nearly artistic, interesting, or campy enough to get away with that. The production design of Satylite City doesn’t amount to much more than a mix of “Hunger Games” and “Mad Max” cosplay. Everything, from the film’s visual style to its performances, comes across flat and lifeless. 

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