My quick rating – 5.4/10. Some flicks feel like they were made in a studio. Others feel like they were made in a garage with a haunted typewriter and a stack of obsolete computer manuals. OBEX proudly belongs to the second category, and I mean that as a compliment.
This is the kind of movie I lined up specifically because it looks weird, and thankfully, it does not betray that promise. The story follows Conor Marsh, played by Albert Birney, a reclusive, agoraphobic VHS-hoarding introvert whose home décor style can best be described as “Blockbuster exploded.” His main real-world interaction is with grocery delivery driver Mary (Callie Hernandez), his dog Sandy, and approximately seventeen thousand hours of analog media. When he starts playing a mysterious new computer game, and Sandy goes missing, he dives into the game world to get her back. In movies, that’s always step one and never a terrible idea.
Shot in black and white and set in 1987, the film leans hard into a retro computing atmosphere. You get dot matrix printer music, old-school UI charm, chunky hardware, and enough ambient tech noise to trigger flashbacks in anyone who’s ever heard a modem scream. I loved the old-school video game sounds during the credits. That alone nearly earned a nostalgia bonus point. There’s also a glorious stack of televisions and enough VHS tapes to survive several media apocalypses. I refuse to judge Conor for this because I do not live in a glass house. Mine has been made of all sorts, from VHS through Bluray.
The vibe is lo-fi analog nightmare with a surrealist streak. The game world characters are creative, awkward, and delightfully strange. There’s a moment with a guy who has a giant monitor for a head (Frank Mosley) getting into a car, and the camera very conveniently cuts away because there is absolutely no universe where that man folded into a sedan like origami. Respect to the edit.
That said, the nostalgia sometimes feels more “researched aesthetic” than lived-in memory. It has a bit of that YouTube-retro-essay energy rather than firsthand tech-era trauma. Also, while I appreciate that they found an old Mac for authenticity, it was very clearly just there for emotional support.
The themes land better than the suspense. The movie explores digital escapism and how screen obsession can quietly replace real connection, especially the simple, important kind (like, say, noticing your dog exists). The emotional core works. The game-world action is fun but very limited and never especially intense. Budget is clearly the final boss here.
I’d love to say the ending surprised me, but my brain called it early and made popcorn. Still, points for commitment. OBEX is intentionally small-scale, creative, and amusingly surreal. Not thrilling, but unique and memorable. Like finding a cursed floppy disk and still putting it in your computer anyway. You know you would.
