In short, this movie is just as odd as its premise makes it sound. A young homosexual zombie wandering around, isn't exactly a premise for an everyday movie but then again "Otto; or, Up with Dead People" isn't your average everyday movie. It's something unique and original and you will most likely either love it or hate it. Me personally; I quite liked it.
Above all things, this is a movie that is taking a very artistic approach. Watching this is a true special experience. Visually its a great looking movie, that is being quite creative and seemed to be full with great ideas. Now, granted that not everything works out well or interesting but overall "Otto; or, Up with Dead People" remains a good watch throughout.
You shouldn't take everything in this movie too literally. Seems to me that its entire main concept was a metaphor how lots of people still look upon homosexuals and how they treat them. In lots of places they are still being seen as not normal, to put it mildly and as meat 'eating' animals. That's why the main character of the movie feels like- or thinks he is a freak, or a zombie in this case. At least that's how I interpret things. But who knows, maybe you will get something totally different out of this movie. But fact remains that this is a very homosexual orientated movie and everything revolves around this.
This also means that the movie is not just showing kissing men but also some far more explicit moments. There is a fair amount of male nudity and even a couple of graphic sex sequences, involving male characters.
The entire movie was obviously quite cheap to make but I think that director Bruce La Bruce did a great job with his material. The way he shot the movie makes it almost irrelevant that it has a quite cheap look to it. It's directed with lots of class, which often makes the movie a visually great one to experience.
Don't watch this movie expecting a lot of story though. There isn't really a clear main point to the movie and the movie is more about its underlying messages. Some movies however can do just fine without a clear main story, as this greatly artistic- and as such an effective, movie demonstrates.
Still some stuff just remains too odd and distracting. Such as for instance the fact that basically every character the main characters comes across turns out to be an homosexual, male of female. Seriously, what kind of world was this movie supposed to be set in, since you clearly can't call it a realistic one.
It also seems odd that this is a German movie, with mostly German actors, speaking all in English. Don't know what's the entire story behind this but it just seems to me that it's more easy for Bruce La Bruce to make movies in Germany but he still wants to reach an international audience, so he wrote and shot all of the dialog in English. This means you can hear a lot of thick accents throughout the movie.
Call me weird but I for most part quite liked this movie!
7/10
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