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UNDEAD LIVE

Today's film was Bruce La Bruce'

Otto; Or, Up with Dead People (2008)

The word transgressive doesn't quite capture the outrageousness of Bruce La Bruce' films.

A Canadian working in Germany, La Bruce manages to spin out a piece of outrage about once every two years.

I suspect it takes him that long to get backing.

But, here is the thing, he has more interesting footage of film, more creative use of the film media and more innovative film technology than most other films I see hands down.

Sometimes the plot is thin but the lines are really wonderful. Everything is mockable. This system, that system, the talking head, the ranting radical, the intellectual and so on. A lot of laughs.

In this film he shows us, well, zombies. Real and imagined.

He shows us two films. One in black and white and the other color with crossovers to and from both.

He has a character that only appears in black and white and without sound using dialog boards like, well, silent movies. He has great dissolves from one shot to another. Lots of neat cinematography.

And the best part. He always has handsome men and there will be some very good homo sex somewhere. Often, heteros get a chance too but not in this one. Granted, some of the sex is kind of gory, this being a zombie flick and all, but La Bruce does not miss the opportunity to slip in a bit of real, true blue porno.

The headline of the review above is not kidding. He does manage to straddle (!?) the line between art and smut.

And why not? Isn't some art smut and some smut an art?

I would give all of Bruce's films a 4. I could be induced to see any of them any time. Again.

Not everyone's taste but there must be enough of us who fit his niche for him to keep producing these things.

Labels: films