Movie Review ~ Omni Loop

Who hasn’t wanted the opportunity to change the past at some point?  After you’ve said something in an argument you regret.  That time you bought an expensive coat as an impulse purchase only to have it sit in your closet because it doesn’t go with anything else your own.  To give your loved one who has passed on a final embrace.  The theories of time travel have long been a captivating theme in cinema, offering viewers the tantalizing prospect of second chances. Whether it’s Back to the Future’s DeLorean-fueled comedic adventures or Looper’s high-stakes thrills of temporal chases, Hollywood loves to bend the laws of time.

In Omni Loop, director Bernardo Britto enters this sacred sci-fi realm but does so with a refreshing twist that sets it apart from the crowd lining up to be beamed back a few centuries.  Instead of focusing on the mechanics of time, Britto hones in on the emotional weight of regret and self-discovery. The result is a poignant and introspective film that reimagines the well-worn trope, proving that even familiar ideas can feel fresh when given the right dose of humanity.

Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker, Red 2) has little time to live.  Burdened by missed opportunities and unfulfilled dreams, she receives the news of her final diagnosis and sadly shuffles home with her husband, Donald (Carlos Jacott, Barbie), to spend what time she does have with her family.  The end comes sooner than Zoya anticipates, though, and before she blacks out, she snags a pill from her purse and pops it just in time…taking her back to the same morning.  Everything has been reset, and Zoya gets to start the worst day of her life, her death, over again. 

Through flashbacks, we see how Zoya began this strange loop of a journey that she believes allows her to travel through time and rewrite her death.  However, she failed to understand the potential emotional conflicts revisiting this could bring and the extreme loneliness ahead.  Britto’s script, developed through the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Lab, wisely avoids getting bogged down in convoluted sci-fi jargon. Instead, it focuses on the poignant underpinnings of Zoya’s quest, exploring universal themes of regret that are instantly recognizable and relatable. As any fan of time-travel films knows, though, meddling with history is never as simple as it seems. 

Even if I wouldn’t call the character warm, per se, Omni Loop finds the usually chilly Parker delivering a nuanced performance that captures the weight of Zoya’s emotional turmoil of dying a little each day. Moving through different highs of finding potential pathways to salvation only to meet the same literal dead end, Parker seamlessly shifts between directness and gathered strength, embodying a deeply flawed and extremely human character. This keeps the audience rooted in Zoya’s internal journey as much as what is happening externally, which can frequently be a little rote, ensuring that the film’s more fantastical elements never overshadow its central message.

Parker is paired with Ayo Edebiri (Theater Camp), fresh off her success in TV’s The Bear as Paula, a lab tech working for Zoya’s old boss (Harris Yulin, The Place Beyond the Pines).  When they first meet, Paula doesn’t know that Zoya has met her dozens of times via the loop.  Thinking she’s found the one person who can harness the laws of science but remain objective, Zoya believes that Paula’s sharp-witted, slightly cynical outlook can fill in the gaps of her findings and the two could not only solve Zoya’s problem but make the concept of time travel accessible for others.  Edebiri’s grounded performance serves as the perfect counterbalance to Parker’s more emotionally volatile Zoya.  The easygoing chemistry between the two actresses is undeniable, making their friendship one of the most compelling aspects of the story.

Lacking the flashy effects of larger-budget time-travel films, the modest production design of Omni Loop often works to its advantage. Britto opts for a lo-fi, grounded aesthetic, allowing the focus to remain on the characters rather than the mechanics of time travel. The muted visuals and minimalist approach to Ava Benjamin Shorr’s cinematography give Zoya’s journey a real-world lens based on a reality we can see ourselves in, even as she’s taking a pill to go back in time to save her own life. 

Known for his work in short films, Britto brings a tight, focused sensibility to Omni Loop. Guiding the narrative with a delicate, confident hand keeps the movie at an understated (perhaps a bit too much so) level, but he avoids the common pitfalls of time-travel storytelling. In avoiding fuzzy logic that leads to plot holes and paradoxes, there’s more freedom to follow the characters instead of the plot.

What truly sets Omni Loop apart from other time-travel films is its emphasis on mindfulness. While the allure of rewriting the past is powerful (and believe me, I’d love to go back and change a few haircuts and unfortunate vest-over-sweater outfits), Britto gently reminds us through Zoya’s story that true fulfillment comes from accepting the life we have, imperfections and all. It’s a film that explores life’s “what ifs” not through the lens of spectacle but through the quiet, personal moments that define who we are. And in doing so, it reminds us that the most important time is always the present.