Otto; or, Up with Dead People

Bruce LaBruce is (very weirdly) becoming one of my favorite indy film makers. WWaaaay back in the early nineties in film school we saw "no skin off my ass" and I dismissed it then as pretentious soft-core. I was glib and wrong. Ages ago my friends and I went to see "Hustler White" at a midnite showing and frankly we were at once titillated and impressed. Then when "Raspberry Reich" rolled out I was ALMOST convinced....That film struck a pitch-perfect chord between 60's revolutionary porn (I Am Curious Yellow) and modern satire. I just watched "Otto" and I am officially a fan. Through the use of explicit sex and graphic violence M. LaBruce is actually making a point! I'm impressed and pleasantly surprised. This is maybe a "zombie" movie...but more specifically a neat commentary on modern youth with a great sense of humor and a chilling overtone. If you're older and adventurous and want to get a sort of "summary" of the present youth-culture and this whole "zombie thing" this is a great film to watch. Underrated and sublime (after you get-over all the gay sex...if you have to get-over it at all)

...this might be the only one you come across. Well now, anyway, since I've pointed it out. Very low (or no) budget is about a young man who's definitely most sincerely undead, so naturally he auditions for a movie about an undead young man. Yeah. Only no one thinks he's actually undead, just, you know, weird.

Desperate to cast someone with real talent, a female director hires a young man who believes that he is actually a zombie to play a zombie in this offbeat blend of comedy and horror from cult director Bruce LaBruce. Constantly cutting back and forth between 'reality' and the film-within, 'Otto' is not the easiest film to get into, but it features a large amount of smart and witty dialogue, both as the title character contemplates the advantages of being dead and as the director rambles on about the importance that she perceives her film to have as "a political film" tied to LGBT issues with a "gay plague" that turns all of the zombies homosexual upon returning from the dead (!). This is a creative movie beyond just the film within though with silent movie footage used well and even a fitting animated sequence amid the madness. The film's best asset though is its ambiguity as to whether or not Otto is actually a zombie. When all is revealed, it is a pretty sad film too about how certain experiences can make one feel dead on the inside. It is an up and down ride, with certain sequences (the director screening all of her previous films; some of the love scenes) that drag on for far too long, but the film circles around a character to whom it is surprisingly easy to grow emotionally invested with considering that he wears a singular zombie expression throughout.

Elly belly, you've taken the film too seriously! LaBruce is very grounded, very modest. Genuine issues are explored but in an refreshingly 'anti Godard' manner - he just makes fun of everything! Labruce ridicules politicians but also those against them; how being 'anti-fa' or 'left' is simply a style or fashion now, (particularly in Berlin), hence Medea, too was mocked when declaring out her 'political' banter.

Laugh at the sex scenes. Crazy, absurd, funny. Not shallow, either: the pleasure one derives from viewing pornography is thrown in their face once mixed with the thrill of the blood and guts of a zombie film. Labruce shows both simultaneously, erections and intestines between the same sheets. Despite being literally 'bloody', they are by no means violent or hate motivated. ''Blood and guts'' is just part of what the zombie lovers get down to in the bedroom! They can also have sex with each other's (very very very newly created) orifices!! ha ha.

This is simply a great film, what a deadly cool way to attack homophobia. Thank god for you Labruce.

"a political-porn-zombie movie" that was the promised genre. well, it was merely political, as the political character Medea did not seem so sincere, she was more like a person who tried to be Gothic or something, but she was OK, not bad. zombie? yes, Otto was a pretty zombie, lost his frightening reasons in the process of zombie evolution. porn? absolutely. the idea of being "disgusting" was very well organized and presented, to be honest -no offense, I believe that was the aim. I don't think that being straight is a reason for seeing it that way. more than half of the audience was gay and I did not see a joy expression at their faces, most of the people were irritated by the violent porn scenes. apart from the violently pornographic shots, Otto walks. walks. walks. this is not a spoiler, it's just only an idea of what you'll see. although a fervent movie addict, maybe I didn't get it. maybe we couldn't see the layers beneath Otto. but you didn't let us do, Bruce..

I can't wait to read other comments, I need to be enlightened or something, please write.