‘OBEX’ Review – An Epic Quest To Save Man’s Best Friend [Sundance 2025]

While a variety of factors have led to it becoming more commonplace, isolating yourself from society through art, media, and other forms of entertainment likely dates back to when man first found himself more interested in spending time with his cave painting than his irritating tribe. The comfort of tranquility and personal exploration is a desirable commodity, but it comes at a price when there is not a proper balance maintained.

Take, for instance, the character of Conor Marsh in OBEX, a man played by writer-director Albert Birney, who lives a life removed from nearly everyone outside of Mary, a disembodied voice on the other side of the door who delivers his weekly groceries. In terms of true companionship, Conor only has Sandy, Birney’s real-life pup and MVP of the film. While many would agree that four walls and a cute dog are all one really needs, there is the important question of the motivations behind the isolation that may reveal how healthy this circumstance is to the individual. 

Birney sets the story in 1987, largely to confront the advent of the rise in technology-based distractions that form a direct link to our current doom scrolling on social media, and partially because this is the year that aligns with the emergence of cicadas from their 17-year slumber. This latter part of the equation is not explored in any thematically meaningful way, but the mere presence of this surreal phenomenon of nature adds to the peculiar aura of the picture—cicadas do feel like the closest things to demons we have among us. 

If we learned anything from previous (co)directorial efforts like Strawberry Mansion or Sylvio, it is that Birney has a distinct way of constructing a reality in which audiences can lose themselves. It is a gift to craft a fully realized world with very little money. Odd flourishes such as three vintage working television sets stacked on top of one another completely settle you into this world that feels very similar yet slightly fractured from our own. 

It is here we find Conor flittering around his modest house, occasionally using his Macintosh computer to create printer-based ASCII art for a few extra bucks. He enjoys the simple pleasures of scoping out newspaper ads, playing video games, low-key karaoke, and watching daytime television—an advertisement for A Nightmare On Elm Street particularly excites him, a nice complement to the dreamy nature of the picture. It is in the newspaper that he finds an ad for OBEX, a video game that claims it can put you into the game. The reality of this is underwhelming at first as he jumps through the hoops to access the experience only to feel cheated, but things escalate when a character from the game breaks through one night, steals Sandy, and absconds with her back to to the realm of OBEX. 

It is at this point that the film truly gets cooking, but it takes a punishingly long time to get to the main thrust of the narrative. The first section of the film sets the stage for everything to come, gradually acclimating the audience to the rhythms of the story. Yet, it is too gradual in this respect, taking up the full first half of the film before we get to the video game world. It feels critically lazy to describe a film as “Lynchian” in this day and age, but it feels apt when it includes what is almost assuredly a direct reference to Lost Highway. It is executed well enough, but there is a sustained darkness to the tone that feels slightly at odds with the more whimsical experiences in OBEX. The shift in the atmosphere could work quite well with better pacing, but the film spins its wheels a bit too much at the onset. 

Even though the film holds the audience back for too long, it delivers everything you want once you are inside the video game world of OBEX. Nothing makes you feel the thrill of a digital adventure quite like Conor visiting the video game equivalent of Mary (Callie Hernandez) to gather supplies for his quest. The handmade quality of the production design and special effects is a thrilling feat of ingenuity. Watching an adversary spin off their skin until only a skeleton remains is something you won’t soon forget. 

There are movies with bigger budgets that have more realistic outfits and monsters, but very few of those capture the genuine joy that comes from watching something that feels like it was made by a group of friends who have not lost touch with their imagination. With what Birney accomplishes here, we would kill to see how he would bring to life The Legend of Zelda on screen. 

OBEX is charming in its simplicity, watching characters traverse wooded areas, coming across foes, and gathering new allies. Setting aside the canine talent, one of the standouts of the film is Victor, an anthropomorphized television set who guides Conor and coaxes out some unexpected emotional catharsis. The journey to save Sandy feels suitably epic for this scale of film, but it would mean nothing if the emotional beats did not land, which they thankfully do in the end. 

The film does not condemn video games or even the desire to be alone—far from it. It embraces the joy of living life free from the traumas of the past and fear for the future. You can lose yourself in front of a screen or push your toes into a sandy beach, but you should do so with a heart open to life’s possibilities. 

OBEX had its World Premiere in the NEXT section of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Albert Birney

Writers: Albert Birney, Pete Ohs

Rated: NR

Runtime: 90m