Remember Streets of Fire, Walter Hill’s 1984 rock-‘n’-roll urban fantasy action movie that died a fiery death at the box office, but is now regarded by all right-thinking people as an absolute banger? If the answer is yes, then a) you’re cool as hell and we can be friends, and b) you should direct your attention to this post-apocalyptic indie, which seems to reading from the same hymn book.
How to watch O’Dessa in New Zealand
O’Dessa is streaming in New Zealand exclusively on Disney+ from March 20, 2025.
What is O’Dessa about?
Writer-director Geremy Jasper (Patti Cake$) brings us the tale of the titular O’Dessa, the seventh son of a seventh son (except she’s a daughter) who is prophesied to bring relief and revolution to the music-themed wasteland she finds herself born into. Taking to the road after the death of her farmer mother, she soon finds herself in love with fellow musician Euri Dervish, and fomenting resistance against a tyrannical dictator/reality show host (golly, that sounds awfully familiar).
There are notes of Repo! The Genetic Opera here, along with cult oddity Six-String Samurai (if you remember that one, you’re doing really well), and more than a dash of the Ben Elton-themed Queen musical We Will Rock You. But it remains to be seen whether O’Dessa is an original composition or a cover.
The cast of O’Dessa
Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink is O’Dessa; Kelvin Harrison Jr. is Euri Dervish; Murray Bartlett is Plutonovich; Regina Hall is Neon Dion; Sons of Anarchy‘s Mark Boone Junior is Father Walt; Pokey LaFarge is Vergil; and Marinko Prga is Vulturo.
O’Dessa trailer
Why we’re excited about O’Dessa
Well, conceptually, this is right up our alley. However, early reviews following O’Dessa‘s recent premiere at SXSW indicate this might be an effort too convinced of its own profundity to be much fun. Then again, painful sincerity is often an essential ingredient to so much rock ‘n’ roll that it may prove to be a benefit here. We shall see.
