A truly wonderful monochrome joy, OBEX takes that lo-fi style and runs with it, giving us an earnest, nostalgia-filled story about breaking away from self-imposed solitude.

Conor (Albert Birney) lives a secluded life in his home in 1980s Baltimore. Dressed like an office worker despite working from home, he draws people on his Macintosh 128k for money. He seems content, he has his dog Sandy, a plethora of VHSs to watch and his neighbour Mary drops off his groceries for him. He could do without the awfully loud cicadas that live around him, but he’s grand. One day, he purchases a game called OBEX, where they program the main character to be you (after you send in an awkward self-tape). However, not long after, Sandy goes missing, and Conor is faced with having to go outside to get her back.

It could be very easy to lump Albert Birney’s OBEX as a story of the retro nature of the 1980s and physical media. However, there is so much more underneath the surface of this well-written film that its true story is about overcoming or processing your past to be the person you were meant to be.

With Conor, we see a man who is now firmly stuck in a self-imposed prison. He rarely ventures outside, to the point where a neighbour, Mary, collects his groceries. When outside with his sweet companion, Sandy, he doesn’t leave the garden and porch with her. He won’t even open the door for Mary to talk to her, instead talking and peaking through the window at the top of his door to see if she has left. It’s a horribly sad existence, and we can see how sad he is.

So, when he gets the chance to create a version of himself that gets to be in an adventure game, he jumps at it. He can be himself, but a different version of himself, who goes out and explores, makes friends and defends those who need help. You feel for him, and Birney does some excellent work to convey how lost and stuck in a routine Conor has become. It works very well, and while the first half of OBEX may test some people’s patience, the second half pays that patience off, for we are meant to see how stuck and almost in mental decline Conor is getting as changes suddenly start to battle with his structured life.

That is not to say that nostalgia and that “retro” feel aren’t there, of course, but it’s more used as a fun visual aid than a crux to the story. We have scenes that would perfectly feel at home in a game with Mary and Conor at the “store”. Add to this the delightful way OBEX pays itself off with the final battle, and it becomes a wonderful joy of a viewing.

While we have to have Conor be front and centre of the film (there is barely a second in which he is not on screen), OBEX would have been a stronger film with that second half perhaps lasting a bit longer to show us Conor’s growth a bit more. Yet, what we get is fine, and it tells its point well enough. With a first half that takes its time and then some to get going, compared to a second half that goes along at a rapid pace, you feel there could have been a bit more evening out of the pacing, even if what was done appears to have been done quite purposefully.

Albert Birney is close to being a one-man band here on OBEX as he is Lead, director, co-writer and editor here, but it would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the great work Pete Ohs (who is also the co-writer) does in showing us that distance Conor has between himself and practically anyone who isn’t Sandy. Add to this the score from Josh Dibbs that keeps us on our toes, as well as the work to incessantly irk us with Cicada noises from Kevin Hill, and we are given a glorious look at what is possible in such an unassuming way. All aspects of the film need to be working well, especially with Birney, who shoulders a lot of the film. They succeed as we are given a strong fairytale of a film that shouldn’t nearly be as emotionally effective as it turns out to be.

We talk about films now, trying to veer us away from screens and getting lost in technology. However, warm and touching films like OBEX present instances where deeper exploration of screens and technology allows us to escape them. This leads to discovering the delights of doing something you never considered beforehand. This is exemplified by us having Conor believe that people will be glued to their screens in the future because everything outside is just too sad. Only to find how wrong he really was. It’s a reminder and a pretty strong one that unplugging yourself, just for a moment, can be worthwhile.

OBEX celebrated its UK Premiere at Glasgow Film Festival and will be available on Blu-ray & Digital from 9th March

★★★★

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big, wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!

Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.