The Year of Ayo Edebiri is joyfully chugging onward, as the award-winning actress-comedian has added yet another high-profile project to her already jam-packed schedule — and this one's a time-travel movie to boot. The thought of one of the best comedic performers working today exploring the sci-fi genre already had my interest piqued, but now reviews are officially rolling out, Omni Loop is one I'm really starting to get excited about.
When she wasn't busy nabbing 2023 Emmys (and 2024 Golden Globes, and Critics Choice Awards) for her work on The Bear, or making us all crack up in movies like Bottoms and Theater Camp, or riling everyone up with photos alongside fellow "Irish" icon Paul Mescal (is it an Emily Henry rom-com or what?!), Edebiri somehow found time to film Omni Loop, a sci-fi dramedy that adds a bittersweet twist to cinema's time-travel tradition. And it's already raking in some seriously impressive critical kudos.
Following its world premiere at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, March 13, the flick already has a picture-perfect 100% Fresh rating on the film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with eight sterling write-ups from outlets like Variety, THR and Deadline. Since the film hasn't actually hit theaters yet outside of his festival premiere, we're still awaiting that all-too-telling audience score but getting the highest possible Rotten Tomatoes rating from critics is a pretty good indicator that Omni Loop is one to check out.
In the Bernardo Britto-directed flick, Mary-Louise Parker plays Zoya Lowe, a Miami-based quantum physicist who is stuck Groundhog's Day-style reliving the last week of her life following a terminal diagnosis. Edebiri plays Paula Campos, a young scientist that Zoya enlists to help her solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always wanted to be.
Along with Edebiri and Parker, the cast is rounded out by Hannah Pearl Utt, Chris Witaske, Carlos Jacott, Harris Yulin, Steven Maier, Riley Fincher-Foster and Eddie Cahill.
Among those stellar Rotten Tomatoes write-ups, many highlighted the great chemistry displayed by the movie's two leading ladies. Dex Wesley Parra echoes that sentiment at The Austin Chronicle, writing that Omni Loop "captures lightning in a bottle" by casting Edebiri and Parker together, "two generations of outstanding actress delivering pensive, soul-stirring performance."
As character foils – Edebiri’s Paula resembling the plucky young academic Parker’s Zoya once strived to be – the two complement one another with grace and an understated sense of humor.
And, mindbogglingly, there's even more where that came from for Edebiri. Along with the — thus far — critically acclaimed Omni Loop, the actress's 2024 movie schedule will include the animated sequel Inside Out 2 (she'll play the emotion Envy) and the upcoming A24 movie Opus, a horror film written and directed by Mark Anthony Green and co-starring John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis and Amber Midthunder.
There will also, of course, be more The Bear: Season 3 will catch up with Edebiri's Sydney, Jeremy Allen White's Carmy and the rest of our favorite Chicago cooks when the hit series returns on FX this June. (Bookmark our 2024 TV premiere schedule for an exact date.)
In the meantime, I'm going to be keeping an eye on that Rotten Tomatoes score and counting down the days until we get to see Omni Loop in theaters or on streaming.
