‘Omaha’ review: Emotional overdrive | Sundance 2025

Starring John Magaro and Molly Belle Wright, Omaha takes the scenic route through heartbreak, delivering big emotions and even bigger performances.

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Buckle up. From director Cole Webley, Omaha masterfully maps an emotional landscape that’s as rugged and unpredictable as the American highways it traverses. This is not your typical road trip movie with quirky pit stops and life lessons tied up in a neat bow. No, Omaha is a raw, unvarnished look at a father fighting to keep his family together while steering through the wreckage of personal loss and economic ruin. John Magaro anchors the film with a performance so gripping it feels less like acting and more like a soul laid bare. Every furrow of his brow, every glance in the rearview mirror, carries the weight of a man trying to navigate roads that don’t have any hopeful exits.

Magaro plays David, a recently widowed father whose home has been foreclosed, leaving him and his two children—wise-beyond-her-years Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and tender-hearted Charlie (Wyatt Solis)—in a car packed with their few remaining possessions. From the moment David puts the car in drive, you feel the tension as even young Ella has to get out and run the car into gear with him.

This isn’t a leisurely cruise through scenic byways, it’s a desperate odyssey fueled by dwindling gas money and frayed nerves. The family’s journey to Omaha, where David hopes to secure a stable future, becomes both a literal and metaphorical trek through grief, guilt, and survival in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis.

Webley captures the weight of that semi-recent era with a deft hand, layering the film with subtle nods to a time when foreclosures were as common as stop signs. An abandoned gas station, a hastily scrawled “For Sale” sign on a farmhouse, a muted conversation about bailouts and bank failures playing on a distant radio—all of them ghostly echoes of a collective trauma.

Yet for all its heavy themes, Omaha never fully wallows in despair. Instead, it finds moments of grace in the smallest gestures: a car game that briefly lightens the mood, a shared snack that feels like a feast in the midst of scarcity, or a roadside kite-flying moment that reminds you that even when the ground falls out from under you, the sky remains.

The performances elevate the material to a level of raw, unfiltered authenticity. Magaro’s David is a man on the brink, but his simmering frustration never overshadows his love for his kids. He’s a father trying to hold it together, even as the cracks in his facade grow harder to hide. Molly Belle Wright is a revelation as Ella, the emotional backbone of the family. She captures the delicate balance of childhood and responsibility, her wide-eyed wonder giving way to a steely resolve when the situation demands it. Wyatt Solis, as Charlie, provides the kind of heartbreaking innocence that reminds you why these stakes matter so much. If Florida Project had been made in the last year, Sean Baker might’ve cast these kids in a hurry.

What sets Omaha apart is its ability to make you feel every bump in the road, both literal and emotional. Webley’s direction is intimate, often framing the family in close quarters, the camera lingering on their faces as they silently process the enormity of their situation. The cinematography, by Paul Meyers, alternates between wide shots of desolate highways and claustrophobic interiors of the car, visually underscoring the tension between freedom and entrapment. The score, a haunting blend of strings and sparse piano, never overwhelms but gently guides the film’s emotional undercurrents.

The beauty of Omaha lies in its restraint. It doesn’t need to shout to make its points. The film’s power is in its quiet moments. The ones that sneak up on you and hit like a freight train when you least expect it. By the time the family reaches their destination, you’re not just watching their journey, you’ve taken it with them. It’s a testament to Webley’s skill that even when you can see the destination coming from a mile away, the journey there still leaves you breathless.

In the end, Omaha is more than just a film about a family on the move, it’s a poignant reflection on resilience, love, and the things we cling to when everything else falls away. It’s a tearjerker, yes, but not in the manipulative sense. The tears come honestly, earned through characters who feel achingly real and a story that cuts to the core. Omaha tugs at your heartstrings right before grabbing the wheel and taking you on a ride you won’t soon forget.

Omaha had its world premiere at the Sundance 2025 Film Festival. Find more of our Sundance 2025 coverage here.