At the start of 2023, Julian Sands went missing in the desert mountains of Mount Baldy in California. Rescue squads could locate him in the following weeks. His remains were eventually found in the summer. The coroner couldn’t determine what happened, so his death remains a mystery. Julian Sands had become an arthouse sensation in the summer of 1986 when Merchant-Ivory’s A Room With A View played for months in America. He stayed a busy actor over the decades in movies and TV shows. He was so busy that quite a few films have come out after his passing. Body Odyssey might be one of this Top 10 performances in a movie about a female bodybuilder.
On a lake in the middle of the picturesque Alps, Mona (Jacqueline Fuchs) is at a state-of-the-art gym preparing her body for the Miss Body Universe competition. Her coach Kurt (Julian Sands) wants her to find a next level to her body. Whether it be through lifting weights, cardio workouts, harsh therapies or the needle. This is a competition that doesn’t seem to care if the contestants are jacked up on steroids. There is no talk of having to using masking agents to fool the urine tests. This is a world where you do whatever you can to reach that perfect body. Kurt is always looking for the cutting edge of steroids. He can’t afford to let Mona come in second against her rival one more time. Mona has become extremely muscular with the body you’d associate with the men in the Pumping Iron documentary. She is bulked up that people swear she is a man. Mona wants to be feminine. There is something erotic when Kurt injects her as they sit on the sofa. But he is not Mona’s lover. While she is in a steam room at the spa, she encounters the much younger Nic (Banger‘s Adam Misík). They each drop towels and seem on the verge of one-on-one workout when Kurt interrupts their proceedings. Nic splits the hot space. Mona can’t get Nic off her mind as the preparations grow more intense for the big title. As she has to control her eating, she starts to mentally unravel. Is she going to make it to Miss Body Universe if her mind crashes?
Body Odyssey grabs your eyes and won’t let go of you. The movie does give a sense that this is a dangerous competition. During one event a pumped-up participant drops dead. But everyone is so focused on themselves and winning that they don’t view the dead body on the floor as a warning sign. Julian Sands delivers an amazing performance where he seems like a sculptor as he keeps chiseling away on Mona’s body. But this is not quite a Dr. Frankenstein situation as he does recognize that there’s a woman inside the muscular body. They are both working on the marvelous creation that will win the title. The actor creates his coach as a subtle inspiration for her instead of screaming his head off to get her to do another round of weightlifting. Jacqueline Fuchs is a real-life bodybuilder and does a lot of emotional heavy lifting in the role of Mona. There’s a scene where she shows up at Nic’s house that’s both funny and frightening. She seems really exposed on the screen both physically and emotionally.
Director Grazia Tricarico and his crew have made a film worthy of a midnight movie. The focus on the body and transformation give it the same vibration as peak David Cronenberg. Mona is the not merely the new flesh, but the expanding muscles. The movie gets visually stunning when she is outside with the Alps mountains surrounding her physique. The sound mix puts you ears on edge like a David Lynch production. There’s constantly a crackle in the air. Body Odyssey is a movie that want to keep you uncomfortable as Mona gets deeper into what it takes to win her title.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfer really lets you see the definition in Mona’s body when she’s flexing. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The movie is subtitled in English. There is also Closed Captions.
Trailer (1:58) lets you know this is all about the muscles.
Indiepix Unlimited presents Body Odyssey. Directed by Grazia Tricarico. Screenplay by Marco Morana, Giulio Rizzo and Grazia Tricarico. Starring Julian Sands, Nicolo Pasetti, Jacqueline Fuchs, Lukas Loughran, Jun Ichikawa, Hanna Ullerstam, Stefan Sauk & Jacelyn Parry. Running Time: 104 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 27, 2025.
