The short film O-Star, a 27-minute rock ’n’ roll musical, struck me as a compilation of music videos (remember those?) from someone’s EP.

During a post-screening Q&A at the Sedona International Film Festival, writer/director Dima Otvertchenko admitted as much. He said he had some original songs laying around from his early teen-age years, when he fancied himself a musician, so he put them to use in his thesis film for the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

The music itself isn’t bad, as vaguely punk-rock songs go, though it did sound more like musical theater than album rock. But the plot Otvertchenko used to sting them together in O-Star was weak, bordering on nonsensical. Set in a dirt town in northern Arizona, the short imagines a limited future for young lovers just out of high school. It’s reminiscent of Armageddon, but with passive, self-absorbed teen-agers instead of heroic go-getters.

In a quick series of events one evening, Rudy (Spencer Broschard) proposes to longtime girlfriend Ava (Jessi Jae Joplin), she dumps him and they find out the world might end in four days. So, naturally, Ava thumbs a ride to Las Vegas with A.J. (Patrick Reilly), who just happened to pull up in an expensive sports car. Rudy heads off in pursuit, hoping to win her back.

Other 2015 Sedona IFF reviews

• ‘The Yank’ Lampoons Ethnic Self-Stereotypes
• ‘Copenhagen’ Takes Love to Dark Places
• Musical ‘Lucky Stiff’ Belongs on Stage

Otvertchenko said he chose to cast singers rather than actors who could sing, and it shows. Reilly’s acting was passable, but Broschard appeared overmatched. Joplin, who fronts a band called The Ruckus, wasn’t remotely believable in her role. It could have been the script or the acting – or a combination thereof – but Ava lacked empathy and appeared completely out of touch in the place where she supposedly grew up. And in her glam-rock costuming, she appeared … well, imagine what Prince might look like in a B-movie set in outer space.

Otvertchenko probably had to meet certain requirements for his thesis film, but there are better ways to present music than tied together with a vaneer of narrative.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: Dima Otvertchenko, Jessi Jae Joplin, Patrick Reilly, short, Spencer Broschard, USC School of Cinematic Arts