OBEX

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1:48

OBEX

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1h 30m

Sci-Fi

Fantasy

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Popcornmeter

96%

Tomatometer

49 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs. Audacious and uncanny, writer-director Albert Birney's OBEX is a delightfully skewed lo-fi fantasy. Shot in striking black and white, this surreally nostalgic nightmare revisits the dawn of personal computing to reflect on the loneliness of our always-online present day.

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Critics Consensus

A beguiling odyssey that offsets its scrappy production values with sumptuously analog presentation, OBEX is a wildly inventive riff on the digital world.

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Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

20h

3/5

Its gentleness and incremental increases in weirdness are a feature, not a bug.

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Robert Lloyd

Los Angeles Times

Jan 16

“Obex” also reminds us that the power to be positively emboldened by tech — rather than imprisoned by it — always will be in humans’ hands, so long as we remember that we always can unplug.

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Maxwell Rabb

Chicago Reader

Jan 14

Birney’s gritty, imaginative filmmaking results in a compelling fantasy that leaves us nowhere to hide . . . from ourselves.

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Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Jan 17

B+

[Albert} Birney’s use of black and white photography adds to the 80s nostalgia carefully crafted here, He also makes me glad that I never caught the gaming bug.

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Josh Goller

Spectrum Culture

Jan 15

3.75/5

Balancing a clear appreciation for nostalgia and fantasy with an imaginative critique of escapism takes a nimble hand, and Birney is more than up to the task.

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Oscar Goff

Cambridge Day

Jan 15

3/4

As absurd as it all is, we sense that Birney means every word of it.

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Clay S

Jan 19

The only thing that matters is that

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Albert Birney

Director

Albert Birney

Conor

Callie Hernandez

Mary

Frank Mosley

Victor

Albert Birney

Screenwriter

Pete Ohs

Screenwriter

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OBEX: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs. Audacious and uncanny, writer-director Albert Birney's OBEX is a delightfully skewed lo-fi fantasy. Shot in striking black and white, this surreally nostalgic nightmare revisits the dawn of personal computing to reflect on the loneliness of our always-online present day.

Director: Albert Birney
Producer: Emma Hannaway, Pete Ohs, James Belfer, Albert Birney
Screenwriter: Albert Birney, Pete Ohs
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Production Co: Cartuna, True Friend
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 9, 2026, Limited
Runtime: 1h 30m

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