OBEX

Whirring floppy disks and clickety-clacking dot matrix printers rule both the real and virtual worlds in this eccentric, handcrafted delight by Baltimore filmmaker Albert Birney (Strawberry Mansion, 2021). Conor (played by Birney) is an oddball hermit whose dog Sandy goes missing soon after he installs a new interactive game called OBEX. In search of Sandy, Conor is transported into the fantastical realms of OBEX, where a fearsome computer demon awaits. Amid the nostalgic glow of monochrome photography and fabulous ’80s synth music – cooked up by Josh Dibb, aka Geologist of Animal Collective – OBEX might be pre-dial-up but it has much to say about the relationship between humans and screens today.