Sundance (Online) Film Festival 2025 #2: Omaha (2025)
An effectively humanistic piece of cinema.
Omaha is one of the best films to come from this years Sundance Film Festival due to being such a special film packed with as much quiet devastation as there is consistently profound humanity found within the story & characters.
First off, I was insanely impressed with the screenplay by writer Robert Machoian. Centering around a father (played by John Magaro) who takes his two kids, Ella & Charlie (played by Molly Belle Wright & Wyatt Solis), on a road trip after their mother passes away, Omaha paints a reticent yet still hauntingly effective portrayal of grappling with grief/loss and the hardships that come with being a parent who is trying to provide the best life possible for their children (the inclusion of the 2008 Economic Crisis plays a big role in this too). However, through all this heavy subject matter, the writing knows when to provide the audience with emotionally crushing drama while also knowing when to find the beauty and benevolence in life through the perspective of Ella & Charlie. All three of these central characters have phenomenal chemistry with one another and you legitimately buy the bond that they share with each other as a family. There are also some amazing touches to the dialogue and plot in this film that I thought added so much authenticity to said characters and their dynamics. I found out during the Q&A after the film that some scenes were actually improvised (particularly some of the more comedic dialogue), which I thought brought so much naturalism and truthfulness towards how a family like this would interact and talk to each other. The plot also has a brilliant understanding of giving these characters time to breath and have a ton of screen time where they be a family (regardless of how happy or sad their moments together are), which all makes for such a massive emotional gut punch once certain events transpire during the last stretch of the film.
Not only is the screenplay for this film outstanding, but Cole Webley’s direction is also just as masterful in many ways. You can tell that he put a ton of care into each frame of this film as every scene in this film feels, looks, and sounds so beautifully constructed and executed. Through the tender heart he has for his characters matched with his careful approach to editing (along with the help of editor Jai Shukla) and gorgeously warm cinematography (shoutouts to the incredible work of D.P. Paul Meyers), Webley captures the delicacy, compassion, and even the burdens that life has to offer through the use of a film whose visuals speak just as loudly as its words. On a general technical level, this film is remarkable and has a ton to love. I already said the cinematography & editing were phenomenal, but the musical score by Christopher Bear (who previously worked on Celine Song’s Past Lives) was also a major standout for me and helped in crafting a strong emotional core to the film as a whole through how elegantly solemn it was at multiple instances.
Lastly, I have to talk about the performances here because I found all of them spectacular the entire way through. As previously mentioned, John Magaro plays our lead character here and he is tremendous every step of the way. He creates such an astounding, subtle, and powerful portrayal of a father trying to be the best one that he can for his children despite being eaten up by the loss of their mother. Every one of his line deliveries, emotional expressions, and his on-screen presence carry a ton to say with so little and it is one of my absolute favorite performances of the year so far. There is also Molly Belle Wright as Ella, who I thought knocked it out of the park in her portrayal of a 9-year-old that contains a ton of purity in terms of capturing the proper age of this character while bringing so much more to the role in the same way that Magaro does in his. And last but not least, there is Wyatt Solis as Charlie, who brings such a delightful amount of comic relief to the role and makes this character feel EXACTLY like a 6-year-old boy without feeling too cheesy or overdone.
To wrap things everything, Omaha is a wonderful piece of filmmaking that will stick with me as one of my favorites of the year so far. It is such an amazing, humanistic film that will definitely win the hearts of those who see it in all of its saddening yet still affectionate glory.
And that is it for today’s review! Do be on the lookout for more Sundance 2025 coverage throughout these next few days! See you all again next time!
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