By Michael Andrillon | Staff Writer
You’ve heard it before one way or the other. We’re constantly finding ourselves lost in our screens, in media, consumption and digital realms beyond our immediate reality. But what if the lines between worlds were blurrier than we presumed?
Conor Marsh finds himself torn between the inner and the outer; his external world is marked by media, video tapes lining the shelves, memory taking up physical space and providing some degree of comfort and sanctuary in his life with his beloved pup, Sandy.
Internally, he finds himself immersed in dreams and memories of his mother, which tug with uncertainty from nostalgia to nightmare.
Three televisions stacked upon each other in an analog totem provide the two multiple avenues for stimuli, newsreels, and movies, for when Conor, at least, is not engaged in his day job of creating text-based art for clients from the comfort of his computer.
And then he spots the ad in a magazine for the brand new state-of-the-art computer game. Navigate the maze, defeat the demon IXAROTH, sounds like a good weekend.
Sandy in “OBEX” | Photo via Oscilloscope
The love of a man for his dog soon finds itself tested, in a story that owes just as much to the “Legend of Zelda” and “Dungeons & Dragons” as it does to the Lynchscape of works like “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet”.
What we get is an existential yet sincere reflection on those intimate moments of loneliness, where meaning is found not only in contemplation, but in the tools, works of art, and content we find worthy of investing our time in.
The black and white aesthetic is amusing in that the themes lean neither either/or. What is “real” emerges through abstractions, emotions, memories, digital, and the physical.
In a scene where our protagonist goes through all his tapes in a frenzy of footage, it’s a montage that couldn’t help but leave me reflecting on the various sights and sounds that I can harken back to as if it were yesterday. Artifacts that leave their imprint on me as much as I leave back on them, associated with experiences and moments, making up my own personal history.
A hidden gem in which the style is the substance, and beckons the viewer like a player to find themselves in the journey alongside the hero.
It’s a film that reminds us of those nuances behind the memories as well as our interests. The hurt and love that make up the past and shape us into the now, for better or for worse, but the honest potential and freedom to reflect and choose the former.
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