Odyssey

Gerard Johnson (Hyena, Muscle) delivers a frenzied London thriller about an estate agent under intense pressure and out of her depth.

We first meet estate agent Natasha (Polly Maberly, Muscle) as she’s having a wisdom tooth pulled out in excruciating close-up before she bolts from the dentist without paying. This sets the feverish tempo for the pain and pressure of the rest of the film. On the surface, she runs a successful business with confidence and charm, but her finances are spiralling and her creditors growing restless.

Gerard Johnson’s frenzied thriller plays as two acts: the first, a glimpse into the seedy cocaine-fuelled underbelly of London, a hyper-tense world that co-exists with morning yoga, high ceilings and horse-riding lessons. The second act, a blood-spattered retribution as debts are called in. The film has been compared to Uncut Gems, Josh and Benny Safdie’s relentlessly stressful work about a New York jeweller navigating pressures from all angles. Combined with the rage seen in Johnson’s earlier works (Hyena, Muscle), Odyssey is a true whirlpool of a movie.