Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott interviews Geremy Jasper, director of the new dystopian rock opera O’Dessa, at SXSW 2025. The film stars Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr, and Regina Hall. O’Dessa will be available on Hulu on March 20th.
Introduction
While there’s certainly no shortage of nightmarish dystopian movies out there, it’s fairly safe to say that musical versions of the subgenre are few and far between. Music numbers in a film can elevate the narrative and accentuate the entertainment value, but it’s not often that characters in a futuristic hellscape bust out in song. Until now. In Geremy Jasper’s dazzling new film O’Dessa, the director/songwriter melds music and dystopia to create a truly unique and powerful film.
In O’Dessa, the young titular character dreams of leaving her family’s desolate farm. Inspired by a prophecy handed down through generations, O’Dessa is told she is the “seventh son” sent to save humanity from its current hopelessness through her music. When the young songstress sets out for the big city to realize her destiny, she finds that the world is much more cruel and unforgiving than she expected. Luckily she finds an ally who shares her vision for a better tomorrow. But when her efforts are revealed to the powers that be in her strange new home, O’Dessa finds she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her newfound loved ones.
Discussion
While O’Dessa features hallmarks of the usual dystopian movies, it also veers away in interesting ways. Old meets new in both function and design. Futuristic elements live side by side with relics from a bygone era. Pops of bright color and neon contrast with the typical bland and dusty aesthetic we’ve come to expect. The result is an interesting and almost hopeful underpinning that feels surprisingly fresh.
Where the vibrant production design livens the visual feel, it’s the music woven throughout the film that makes the story sing. Gorgeous and epic songs erupt in nearly every sequence, providing context and explanation. With melodies ironically lean into southern rock, bluegrass, rocking, and even gospel, they simultaneously up the entertainment ante while propelling the narrative in a powerful and captivating way.
Incredible Performances
As O’Dessa, Sadie Sink is absolutely brilliant. Fans of her previous work in projects like Stranger Things or The Whale will be amazed to find that Sink’s talent goes far beyond expert emoting. Her incredible singing voice paired with impressive guitar skills are as engaging as they are amazing.
An equally incredible supporting cast rounds out the rock opera. Regina Hall goes full menacing baddie as underworld boss Neon Dion. Kelvin Harrison Jr. sings and dances his way into O’Dessa’s heart as Dion’s cash cow Euri Dervish. And Murray Bartlett pours his White Lotus/Last of Us energy into an omnipresent flamboyant reality talent show host/ruler Plutonovich.
All in all, O’Dessa turns the typical dystopian nightmare into a neon-drenched whimsical tale of musical destiny. With fabulous performances, heel-stomping songs, and captivating imagery, O’Dessa proves to be a dystopian fever dream like no other.
Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott had the opportunity to sit down and chat with O’Dessa director Geremy Jasper at SXSW 2025. They talk about music in storytelling, glowing up a tired genre, and finding the perfect leading lady.
Interview
Rebecca Elliott:
I’m super excited to speak with you. I saw Patti Cake$ at South by Southwest several years ago. It was one of my favorite films of the festival that year, and it just blew me away. Here you are again with another musical-themed film. Can you tell me what compels you to use music in your storytelling?
Geremy Jasper:
Yeah, good question. I started off as a songwriter and as a musician first and came to film later in life. I didn’t even think that I would want to be a director until I turned 30. I’m not someone who went to film school or came up dreaming of being a director like some of my friends. It was a long, strange journey to get there. Having put my 10,000 hours into songwriting and music and being in recording studios from the age of 16 onward, I always love writing songs for characters and telling stories within songs. Like all of my favorite songwriters, their work is very cinematic. They’re almost like mini movies in their songs.
Alternative Musicals
I felt like if I wanted to be a filmmaker, that would be the best way for me to sneak in the back door, is to use songs as the skeleton for a story. Some of my favorite films of all time use music to tell a story. Cabaret by Bob Fosse is one of my favorite films ever. The way that they use those songs to deepen the emotions or the tension or used ironically, it really blows my mind.
When I saw that film, I was like, Oh, okay. You can use songs in a different way. It doesn’t have to be like an MGM musical. You can do it in a fresh way. After doing Patti, which was a hip hop thing, and hip hop was my first love, and it was reconnecting with that and growing up in New Jersey. Then the music of O’Dessa is much more of the music that I am passionate about for the last 30 years or so. It was an excuse for me to write all these songs. I was just looking for an excuse to make a record, which has become harder and harder to do.
We just started building the story piece by piece as you do. You have ideas for songs, and you have ideas of where they’re going to go and how characters are going to relate to certain genres of music. That’s really interesting to me. I’m really ambitious in what I like to do, and so I like to play with different forms of music and let that reflect the character’s personalities and personas.
Southern Roots
Rebecca Elliott:
You mentioned Patti Cake$ was more in a hip hop rap realm. Then O’Dessa leans definitely to more of a Southern vibe with blue grass and gospel and rockabilly. You said this is the music that was calling to you, but can you talk about fitting that in this cool dystopian story? It’s a little bit opposite of what we expect in a way.
Geremy Jasper:
In some ways, yes, in some ways, no. I was very interested in Woody Guthrie, who was writing these songs in the 1930s during the dust bowl, which is really dystopian. When you look at the dust bowl and you look at the depression, it’s like the closest thing that we have in the 20th century to a straight up dystopian wasteland. A lot of those tunes, traditions, and then people really suffering connected to me to the cinematic dystopians that I grew up watching. Everything post Mad Max, and all the spin-offs, and all the rip-offs and all that. I was a kid in the ’80s, and that was just everywhere, and you can’t shake it. And so I was really interested in marrying those two things because I find that they’re really related in a way.
Rebecca Elliott:
Sadie Sink, who plays the character O’Dessa, is absolutely incredible. I’m a huge fan of hers from her other work. And then here she is busting out, playing music and singing like an angel. Can you tell me about casting her? Was she at the top of your list, or was she a surprise?
Finding The Perfect Lead
Geremy Jasper:
She was a bit of a surprise, which is even more magical when you’re searching for years to find the right person for O’Dessa. There’s a very small window. It’s like someone who’s young enough but also has the power and the depth to go on this journey. To be innocent at the beginning, and then also be someone that’s going to look in the face of death at the end and have that strength and have that… I don’t know what the term would be, but the fact that she could do all of those things, had these skills. She’s going to be like the next Meryl Streep. She can really do it all, and she’s so dialed in.
Then the fact that she can sing and play. She knew the guitar before the film, but she learned every single part. She can play all the riffs. She’s the most natural singer that I’ve ever worked with. She’s a miracle. There was a time where I just thought, “Okay, I’ve been working on this thing for years. It’s just not going to happen. She doesn’t exist.” Then luckily Sadie found the script, found the songs, and then it just came together.
Rebecca Elliott:
Amazing! What a stroke of luck right there.
Geremy Jasper:
Yes, stroke of luck!
Production Design
Rebecca Elliott:
Can you tell me a little bit about the production design? Of course, it’s this dusty dystopia. But then there’s so much neon and bright colors. Which I find was a wonderful contrast in that gloomy setting that we usually see. Can you talk about working with your production designer and how you crafted that look for O’Dessa?
Geremy Jasper:
Yeah, it’s a good question. A lot of the dystopian cinema out there is very brown, yellow, sepia, like, rusty. I wanted to create something that felt more like busted up plastic. It was a plastic dystopia, and that the natural world has been so polluted that it takes on a day glow color palette. The film, the music, the characters, they’re a collage of different eras. We brought that idea into the production design also, where you could have scrolling, crappy LED signs combined with almost like steampunk-style industrial wastelands.
That juxtaposition, that combination of influences was really interesting to Scott Dougan, the production designer and myself. We were always trying to figure out what could work in this world and what doesn’t. There are elements of Weimar, Berlin from the ’30s, and then there’s stuff that looks like New Jersey that I grew up in. That was the real fun part. I like films that play with time in that way, a little bit old, a little bit new. It’s like what we were talking about with the dust bowl, the 1930s versus 2030, and trying to meld those two things.
Soundtrack
Rebecca Elliott:
Yeah, that’s true. Well, I think I have time probably for one more question. Are you going to release the soundtrack for this film?
Geremy Jasper:
Yeah. Soundtrack’s coming out, I think, on Friday. I think it comes out on the 14th, which I’m really excited about.
Rebecca Elliott:
Great! Do you have any more musicals in the works? Or is it time to switch genres?
Geremy Jasper:
I don’t know. I think I need to take a break on musicals. This one took over my life. Writing, directing, and then being in the studio and mixing the score and doing all. It was a lot. I’m ready to take a step back from that. I’m going to do something different next time.
Rebecca Elliott:
That must be an intense amount of work. I can’t imagine. It’s producing an album and a movie at the same time, basically.
Geremy Jasper:
Yeah. It’s a joy, but it was…My wife needs me to take a break.
The Wrap Up
Rebecca Elliott:
Understood. Well, it was such a pleasure chatting with you today. Thank you for taking your time. The movie is incredible, and I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks about it when it’s unleashed in the world soon. Have a great day.
Geremy Jasper
Thank you so much.
O’Dessa will be available on Hulu on March 20th.
