{"id":51308,"date":"2026-01-10T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=51308"},"modified":"2026-01-10T11:22:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:22:46","slug":"obex-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/10\/obex-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Obex [2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An agoraphobic computer artist embarks on a strange journey of self-discovery in the engaging and off-kilter Obex, from writer-director-star Albert Birney.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest right from the start. Obex is a very niche film. It\u2019s written, directed, and starring Albert Birney, who previously co-wrote and co-directed Strawberry Mansions. If you\u2019ve seen Strawberry Mansions, you know to expect something very unconventional but wholly engaging with a new point of view, strange turns, and a real sense of loving oddity. General audiences may not be able to twist their mind and open to accept this sort of cult destined film, but for those attuned to the weird, cultish, oddball flicks, they will find a sweet, fun, incredibly earnest and clever little adventure. It has a specific lo-fi, homemade, off-kilter in script, performance, shot and story and especially in character. But incredibly engaging and strange.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conor is a computer guy in the early 80s; he has the weird job of translating people\u2019s photos into ASCII art for a few bucks. Agoraphobic, his only connection to the outside world is a neighbour who brings groceries, as only heard from the other side of the door, and his dog. He lives a quiet, but lonely, existence with his dog Sandy, taping A Nightmare on Elm Street<\/a> off TV to add to a giant collection of recorded media, while watching on a wall of TVs, singing himself to sleep with a homemade karaoke machine. He\u2019s troubled, in a way we don\u2019t know yet, but of course will be considered in the main push of the film.\u00a0 But for all the odd lonely guy existence, Albert Birney endears us to Conor; he\u2019s likeable and kind. I\u2019d be his friend.\u00a0 He answers an ad to play a new game, Obex, enquiring about him. While he originally pushes the game away for not living up to snuff, something weird happens. The villain comes out and kidnaps Sandy! The only way to get back the precious dog is to get Tron<\/a>ed into David Lynch<\/a>\u2019s Legend of Zelda to face his demons and the villain and become a hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u2019ll admit, this opening is a little too long (more than once, I was thinking \u201cis this going somewhere, did I get the plot wrong?\u201d), upon Conor setting off to save Sandy and self-discovery, it gains a nice drive. Still, it\u2019s its own brand of lo-fi, low-key energy, but it works as Conor works his way through himself. It has that purposeful, matter-of-fact, lower-emotion acting style, giving a level of artificiality. I liked that, keeping the film off-kilter. The quest is engaging, and the people he meets give wonderfully odd goes: a shopkeeper, played by Calie Hernandez from Invention<\/a>, who also voices the neighbour, a knight, and most importantly, Victor. Victor is a sentient TV, in looks but very different in disposition from Saga\u2019s TV race. I love Victor. There\u2019s a poignant, touching sincerity to it all, especially with Victor, as performed by Frank Mosley.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The black-and-white cinematography helps build the otherworldly, transforming whatever rolling hills they had access to into just enough of a different place to work. It especially helps with the various special effects. These were just lovely, filled with ingenuity and surprise. To try to describe them wouldn\u2019t do them or the film justice as they are found. But if you\u2019ve read this far and are in on the film, you\u2019ll dig.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Birney\u2019s Obex is a film for those who crave the strange and esoteric. The films that don\u2019t exactly line up with expectations of how film works, filled with big ideas and bright creativity. The sort who see Eraserhead and think \u201cyes, this type of movie please. Confuse me, and I\u2019ll love you\u201d Obex is a lovely journey through the weird sort of self-discovery. Seek it out if it\u2019s your jam.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An agoraphobic computer artist embarks on a strange journey of self-discovery in the engaging and off-kilter Obex, from writer-director-star Albert Birney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,302,349,477,1458],"class_list":["post-51308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-drama","tag-fantasy","tag-horror","tag-sci-fi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51316,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51308\/revisions\/51316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}