Robert Watched: Omni Loop

Robert's Watchin It Score: 4/5 Must Watch It: 2/5

Overview

Released in 2024 starring Mary-Louse Parker (Fried Green Tomatoes, Weeds, and The West Wing) and co-staring Ayo Edebiri (Dickinson, The Bear, and Inside Out 2). Written and directed by Bernardo Britto.

Omni Loop follows a woman, Zoya Lowe (Parker), as she uses a mysterious pill to time-loop repeatedly through the final days of her life after receiving a terminal diagnosis. With the assistance of science student Paula (Edebiri), Zoya attempts to uncover the mystery of how the pills work in order to extend their limited 5-day time travel range.

Viewers that are experienced with the time-loop genre will be blindsided by the unorthodox departure from time-loop norms, going so far as to just be a time travel movie and not specifically a time loop movie. Whereas in a standard time-loop movie the protagonist is stuck in the loop and has no control over resets, the main character can choose when to initiate a loop or not. However, the hard stop of the characters impending death gives the movie that more standard time-loopy feel.

For the most part the story moves at a somewhat slow pace while exploring the importance of spending time with family and the acceptance of death, which may be a negative for those that start the movie with different expectations. This is not what I would call a “Saturday-night” movie.

Review

(SPOILERS!)

As listeners may know, we love time-loop movies here at the Watchin It and this one is no exception.

Mary-Louse Parker, Ayo Edebiri, and the rest of the cast meet all the acting standards I expect. Nothing stood out as great or bad. I was immersed in the characters and not distracted by the stature of the leads.

Omni Loop takes place in the future but does so with a welcome soft touch of mostly telling and not showing instead of shoving it into your eyes with fancy effects and technology. The movie knows the focus of the story is about people and not the world they live in.

The choice to start both toward the end of and in the middle of an ongoing loop, we don’t know how long, was an excellent choice. While we do get an explanation of the backstory in the second act, little time is spent on things the viewer can imagine themselves and allows more time to focus on the main themes of the story.

In some places the story could be more concise, such as the addition of an odd character that serves little importance to the plot outside of being a glorified scientific device. However, that character is welcome and fun, even if tragic, and has an interesting unexplored story of their own. My fingers are crossed that story gets told, but I don’t have my hopes up.

Overall Omni Loop is a well-executed and unexpected take on the time-loop genre. A genre that one would not consider young but still has a lot of room to be expanded on for those willing to take the risk, and this movie certainly does that.

Should you watch it

I would not consider this a must-see for everyone. If you are a lover of time-loop movies and interested in a different use of the genre, this movie may be for you. If you are looking for something fast paced, exciting, or super funny, you should probably skip this one. Watch the first 30 minutes safely knowing that you can turn it off if you are not enjoying it up to that point.