Odyssey (Gerard Johnson, 2025)⭐⭐

A film doomed to be ungoogleable thanks to Christopher Nolan's Homeric hyperbole, Odyssey is a micro-budget thriller of sorts that focuses on Natasha (Polly Maberly), an estate agent in financial trouble who owes money to 'the wrong people'.

Natasha is unpleasant, drug-addled and constantly angling and lying in order to keep herself and her business afloat. Her acquaintance with a small-time gangster leads to her being drawn in to the kidnapping of a rival estate agent with the promise her debt will be written off if she looks after him in a secluded farmhouse that just happens to be on her agency's books.

Natasha's involvement never makes a huge amount of sense beyond her ability to offer up the property and what looks like it will be a slow, inexorable descent into hell turns on a penny into an admittedly well-orchestrated orgy of violence in the final act. It looks great but in no way feels earned and is so effortless it undermines the implied threat of the rest of the film.

The music, by Gerard Johnson's brother Matt (from The The), is great but way too high in the mix and often drowns out the dialogue. Is it still mumblecore if everyone is talking at normal volume but there is sinister electro playing over the top?

All the above sounds negative but Polly Maberly is so good in the lead role that the film remains watchable. I just wish there was a bit more to it.