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OBEX MOVIE REVIEW
OBEX, the latest film from multi-hyphenate artist Albert Birney, is set in the pre-internet days of the 1980s. In addition to writing and directing, Birney also stars as Conor, a computer nerd and shut-in who lives alone with his dog Sandy. One day, intrigued by an ad, Conor orders a copy of OBEX, a new video game which promises an unprecedented level of immersion. The game turns out to be dull, so Conor gives up on it right away, but shortly after installing OBEX on his computer, strange things begin to happen. A monster from the game walks around the house as Conor sleeps, the neighborhood becomes infested by a swarm of cicadas, the dot matrix printer spits out frightening messages, and worst of all, Sandy goes missing. Now Conor must embark on an epic quest, one in which he’ll encounter dangers, make friends, and rescue the beloved Sandy from the clutches of the demon, Ixaroth. But first, he’ll will have to leave the house. OBEX is a unique blend of lo-fi sci-fi, arthouse horror, RPG fantasy tropes, and… mumblecore indie romantic comedy? Can all of these different tones coalesce into a cohesive, enjoyable film? While you wait for your vintage Mac SE to boot up, listen to Kate, Mike the Editor, and Marco as they give you their two bits on this 8-bit fever dream of a movie.
DIRECTED BY: Albert Birney
STARRING: Albert Birney, Callie Hernandez, Frank Mosley
YOUR REVIEWERS
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“I’m not a film critic. I just play one on the Internet.”
Kate Chambers (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Kate is a certified horror fiend and Horse Girl™. Her name isn’t short for anything. A native Austinite, she graduated with a BFA in Film Production from the University of Colorado Boulder then returned to the Lone Star State to make her home amid the cinephiles of the Alamo Drafthouse and the Austin Film Society. In her spare time, you can find her either down at the barn with her noble steed Jazz, watching as many movies as possible (often at work), cuddling with her pair of black cats and writing horror scripts, or nursing a beer in any available body of water… or doing Duolingo, where she’s currently on a 1000+ day streak.
Mike J. McAllister (Screener Squad, Staff Writer, Head Video Editor)
Mike J. McAllister is an award-winning creative jack of all trades, and is pretty competent with most of them. He is a writer, director, animator, video editor, and motion graphics artist. He has tried his hand at nearly every form of artistic expression at least once. He was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania where he fell in love with film, writing and special effects at an early age. His obsession with film would lead him to being locally known as a “human IMDb” and being on a first-name basis with every video store clerk in town. He would study film in Pittsburgh before taking his talents to Austin. Not letting something like Tourettes get in his way, he has produced a handful of animated short films that have won awards from film festivals all over the globe. He has also written several yet-to-be-produced screenplays and TV pilots, with some of them being recognized in screenwriting competitions. He has even created motion graphics and animations for several clients, from movie theaters to Twitch streamers. When not creating or watching films, he enjoys MST3K, classic video games and buying vinyl records. He loves dogs, dropping obscure pop culture trivia and watching travel videos. He currently resides in Austin Texas and can be followed on the Instamagrams at @ohheyitsmikejm. His body of work can be found at his homepage or you can take a gander at his somewhat-impressive IMDb listing here.
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