
Bernardo Britto’s “Omni Loop(2024)” is clearly not one of those science fiction films in the conventional mold with bravado and action at every corner seeking to entertain the audience rather than provide a thrill of concepts. It begins by bluntly stating a premise that is a prerequisite for the rest of the film to work which reads: Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker), the heroine of the movie, has been declared by the physicians to be suffering from a black hole in her chest and within five days she will die. One side effect of this is the only one that counts for the audience in connection with the film this woman appears to be free of the linear bounds of the structure of time, where you know things have happened to you but not what hasn’t, as this is in the unlikely future. One could venture to claim that her condition is close to the description which appears to be the first line of one of the more infamous science fiction novels that was written by Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five – ‘Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time’.
The rationale of the film can be understood from the illocutionary force of the words: ‘The film starts with Zoya’. Zoya, a daughter to author Jayne (Hannah Pearl Utt) and a bestselling science fiction writer is in the hospital while getting updates on her medical condition from her husband Donald (Carlos Jacott)!
In one of the shots, the background hospital staff, for some odd reason, cheered loudly, and the doctor was embarrassed to say that they were simply fans of one of the teams playing in the ongoing game. This will definitely be repeated on some other occasions as the film progresses, along with many other instances, and all these Zoya Akhtar is conscious of, in the style of protagonists in other non-linear, time-looping films, most famously Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow, as well as non-sci-fi movies with nonlinear narration structure such as All That Jazz, Six Degrees of Separation, or basically any of the works of Christopher Nolan. Zoya is aware of them because she has been on a medication that gives her the ability to time travel back in one-week intervals and has previously used the drug. Zoya is cognizant of her position and attempts, not just to comprehend it, but to take control of it in what seems an impossible task; changing one’s fate of dying. The film takes a turn into a sort of buddy movie genre as Zoya then sets her sights on one of her targets, a science student named Paula (Ayo Edebiri of “The Bear”) who she hopes can assist her in unraveling the trouble that she found herself in.
Moreover, and as it happens with this type of film, ‘Omni Loop’ is also a way of experiencing the experience of looking at motion pictures, for the first time and over and over again. In the film, Groundhog Day, there’s a scene where Bill Murray’s hero, over the course of the rest of the day, accepts the fact that he has a set number of days to live and he calmly sits in a restaurant and begins to narrate every single event which is to unfold on the screen around him, much like a director barking orders to the squad on-site about when to shoot an already done scene which is going to have its number on the clapper, a two digit all the way. You can find such moments in Omni Loop as well where Aya informs the other characters of the events that have transpired say maybe in a ‘medical facility’ or quite literally introduces them to events that have taken place like bird droppings on the bench where someone sits.
Thinking about it now, it is entirely incorrect to refer to it as ‘unspools’ as I did earlier on in this paper. Let me not be so hard on myself and directly delete that statement. It is however pertinent to note that such occurrences in a movie contributes to the number of times I expected to see it and began to be alerted asking myself why I felt that way. This is how it is, it is a word you expect to hear in the baritone of an Englishman who has four years under the generic Terry sweaters perfecting his weaving techniques combined with the acoustic properties of his Scottish ancestry for such phrases.
It hails from an era in which the predominant means of movie-making was film, the kind that got projected through big projectors that had reels containing thin strips of celluloid and began from the head and ended at the tail. Film is, in relation to its physical properties, perhaps the most straightforward medium there is. Thanks to the title, ‘Omni Loop’ is a straightforward film and that is its only characteristic, not at all.
As the film progresses, I especially do not seek to ignore the beginning of a constant term in a linear function but even more so in the running time. Many viewers may find themselves at a loss as to what is happening or what it all means, where in the narrative they are situated in relation to the film as a whole. Fortunately, this is also one of those films that effectively shows you how to watch it, and by the finale, if you have given all of your attention span to the film, you will be fully acclimated to how it communicates. Why? There are, in my opinion of the film, two reasons. The first is that when you take this form of storytelling into consideration, it is closer to how the brain works than storytelling one might commonly find in feature films. Secondly, it becomes whilst not imagining and rationalizing that you’re watching a ‘film’ but rather remembering it as being someone’s interpretation that you are seeking to follow. The ‘cutting’ as it would be referred to by the ‘director’ is extremely quick, almost on the cusp of ‘strobe flash’ quickness.
This is an extraordinary film that appears larger than it actually is, and even when it appears to lean somewhat on its captivating visuals and atmosphere, it is not an issue because of Parker’s sensitive and stunning performances.
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