OBEX

by Mike McGranaghan

Watching OBEX, I kept thinking how much it had in common with David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Both are trippy, black-and-white sci-fi nightmares, made by directors with a sharp vision and a refusal to play by conventional rules of storytelling. In this case, that director is Albert Birney (Strawberry Mansion), who also stars as the story’s protagonist, Conor. The film won’t be for everyone, but once you hear the premise, you’ll instantly know if it is for you.

The story takes place in 1987. Conor is an agoraphobe who makes a living by recreating photographs on his Apple Macintosh computer. Unseen neighbor Mary (Callie Hernandez) picks up groceries to leave on his porch and talks to him through the closed front door. Seeking an escape from boredom – and the endless hissing of the cicadas outside his Baltimore home - Conor applies to receive a groundbreaking computer program called OBEX that promises to put the player inside a game. His floppy disk arrives, he pops it in the slot, and a short time later, he finds himself seemingly on a quest to rescue his beloved dog from a mythical demon named Ixaroth. Aiding him is Victor (Frank Moseley), a being with an old television set for a head.

Aside from black-and-white photography, OBEX has a distinct low-fi visual style. Era-appropriate Apple Mac graphics factor into the story and, in fact, influence the entire look. Special effects are intentionally on the outdated side, although still cool in a nostalgic, retro way. The synth-heavy soundtrack often sounds like MIDI music. Birney’s film is a love letter to the earliest days of home computing.

Plotwise, there is no plot. Conor’s effort to save his dog is merely a hook on which to hang a series of increasingly weird moments that replicate the basic structure of a vintage computer game like The Bard’s Tale or Dark Castle. No explanations are given for how OBEX works. We don't even know if it’s real. A possibility exists that Conor is imagining the entire thing. The point is simply to cinematically recreate the vibe of those old games, which felt so revolutionary at the time.

And to make you laugh. OBEX is often very funny in its random weirdness. Even without a conventional story, it’s never boring because of the seemingly endless supply of quirky surprises. There’s something subversively sweet in here, too, if you look hard enough. The love for ‘80s gaming shines through in this delightfully quirky indie.

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