Omni Loop

Generally a fan of low budget indie high concept sci-fi movies especially ones that are interested in time travel. Going by the casting of Ayo (one of the most employed movie actors in the industry right now) it was understood that this would lean more towards the comedic aspect rather than something like Coherence or Time Crimes that investigates the scifi premise indepth.

This movie however fails to be a good ide driven scifi movie and as a comedy, even with a runtime of 1hr and 50 mins this feel thrice as long especially with the 2nd half of the film dragging excessively.

Just straight up avoid it.

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer-director Bernardo Britto has delivered a modern-day cinematic rarity: a Science Fiction film without overblown special effects. Time travel is a vital part of the story, but at its core, this is a film about human emotions, and it has quite a message for viewers.

Mary-Louise Parker ("Weeds") stars as Zoya Lowe, a quantum physicist and our story's time traveler. Only this isn't the kind of time traveler you are thinking of. Zoya neither travels back to medieval times nor forward to some future high-tech civilization. See, the magic pills she found as a kid only take her back 5 days. This is less THE TIME MACHINE (1969) and more GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) ... without the laughs or Ned Ryerson.

Zoya has been diagnosed with 'a black hole growing in her chest.' Now, I'm not sure if that diagnosis is an actual medical affliction or rather a metaphor, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Zoya has been given a week to live, which means with those pills, she's forced to re-do every day since her diagnosis in hopes of discovering what the pills are and how they work. To do this, she collaborates with Paula (Ayo Edebiri, "The Bear"), a community college science student with access to the campus lab. For some reason, this particular lab hosts an extreme sci-fi secret that Zoya and Paula believe can help solve the mystery.

Part of the gag here is that Zoya must re-live the terminal diagnosis, blow out the candles on her early birthday cake, and then convince Paula to assist over and over again. As Zoya goes through her daily re-dos, the supporting cast around her consists of Carlos Jacott as her husband, Hannah Pearl Utt as her daughter, Eddie Cahill as a brilliant scientist, Fern Katz as her assisted-living mom, and Harris Yulin as her old college professor. We may overdose on the electronic music that plays through most of the movie, but there is a terrific message here - being there for others is so important, and we should focus on what really matters in this all-too-short life.

In theaters and on Digital beginning September 20, 2024.

A very tedious movie with a theoretically interesting premise, but super badly executed. The problem is not with Marie Louise Parker who acted soporifically beautiful, but with the whole ensemble cast, family and especially that "partner" of hers who was terribly chosen. The professor was the better and more interesting character with little screen time.

That's not a sci-fi movie, that's a philosophical drama with an ounce of science-fiction.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 5
• Production value/impact: 4
• Development: 7
• Realism: 4
• Entertainment: 1.5
• Acting: 6
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 5.5
• VFX: 3
• Music/score/sound: 4
• Depth: 6
• Logic: 2
• Flow: 1.5
• Sci-fi/drama: 4.5
• Ending: 3.

I am such a sucker for a good sci-fi movie especially when it involves time travel. The setup and conundrum you get within the first 10 minutes. You only have to listen to the doctor giving Zoya her prognosis to understand that we are going to be stretching reality a little bit so enjoy the ride. The use of the Groundhog Day time travel concept is not original. The use of it to save a life is not original. The message that it presents about parenthood and the choices one makes along the road of life however are wholly its own. Beautiful storytelling and the characters are well rounded and multi dimensional. As a fan of fantasy storytelling mixed with sci-fi tropes I loved it and recommend it wholeheartedly.

In Miami, the physicist Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker) is terminal with a black hole on her chest. She has only one-week life and her husband Donald (Carlos Jacott), her daughter Jayne (Hannah Pearl Utt) and Jayne's fiancée Morris (Chris Witaske) bring her home to spend her last days comfortably with her family. However, when Zoya bleeds indicating that she will die, she goes to the bathroom and swallows one mysterious pill that she found when she was twelve and returns five days back in her life. Now Zoya wants to research how she could return further and make others choices in life. When she meets the graduation student Paula (Ayo Edebiri), she teams up with her to analyze the pill for several five days but goes nowhere. But when she goes to Princeton to meet her former brilliant university mate Mark (Eddie Cahill) and his son later, she reflects on her life and concludes she has made her best alternative.

"Omni Loop" (2024) is a melancholic sci-fi, developed in slow pace and very dramatic. Mary-Louise Parker is a great actress, but it is sad to see her injected with Botox in her face the way she is. The plot is good, and Zoya Lowe sees that an alternate life should not be what she is looking for. Another excellent point is the soundtrack by the Brazilian Taiguara singing "Viagem", written and composed by him. Taiguara was born in Montevideo, Uruguay during a tour of his parents but grew up in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and was exiled in London, Spain, Paris and Afrikan countries during the Brazilian military dictatorship. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.