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Octavio is Dead

Country: Canada, Language: English, 88 mins

  • Director: Sook-Yin Lee
  • Writer: Sook-Yin Lee
  • Producer: Jamie Manning; Simone Urdl; Jennifer Weiss

CGiii Comment

The [extremely] imaginatively-written 'blurb' makes it sound so much better than it is!

A gay ghost and a mildly-meek woman...in a dingy, dilapidated apartment. The scene is all set for some serious spookiness...not an ounce!

Sook-Yin Lee takes her story to the far-reaches of plausibility...you'd have to take some kind of mind-bending pill to swallow this mangled story!

There's a mysterious young man [loafing around], who works in a 'men-only' girly-bar for men only [apart from the 'girls who 'perform' there]. Tyler-the-meek wants to meet him...to gain access, she cuts her hair, dons an ill-fitting suit...and, hey presto, she becomes a credible man...here's hoping that pill has kicked in...because, she looks nothing like a man [but, a striking resemblance with Natalie Imbruglia in her Torn days!]...still, nobody seems to notice...and, she becomes chummy with all the boys...ending up in bed with the loafer! He's gay and not too-pleased when he discovers that 'he' is missing a vital component!

Then...there's a great big twist...anyone could see coming a mile off! Even through the effects of that pill!

To cut a long story short...obviously, Sook-Yin Lee is trying to make a profound statement about sexuality and all that 'fluidity' jazz...there's no such a thing as a compartment so why put yourself in one! Labels? What labels!?! I am not a label...I am a gender-fluid-polyamorous-questioning-bisexual+!

Y'know, if Sook-Yin Lee was born 30 years later...this would be a prime example of mad-millennial-movie-making...unfortunately, this GenX auteur tried to jump onto the millennial-bandwagon and missed...ooops!


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Things are not quite what they seem in Octavio Is Dead!, a moody and sexually charged supernatural tale from multitalented director Sook-Yin Lee.

Tyler (Alias Grace’s mesmerizing Sarah Gadon) is unemployed and unsettled after learning that her father, a man she’s never met, has died and left her everything, including an apartment cluttered with the detritus of a complicated life. Her mother Joan, played by the legendary Rosanna Arquette, doesn’t even want to talk about it. Impulsively deciding to explore her father’s stomping grounds before the apartment is sold, Tyler’s curiosity about her fathers lowly evolves into a sensual exploration of her own identity and desires.

With incredible performances from an excellent cast that includes hunky newcomer Dimitris Kitsos, Lee has produced the seemingly impossible: a sexy and thoughtful queer film that appeals to women and men and to those who like their gender bent.

Cast & Characters

Sarah Gadon as Tyler;
Rosanna Arquette as Joan;
Raoul Max Trujillo as Octavio;
Marni Van Dyk as Chrissie;
Ho Chow as Benny;
Kevin Dennis as Steven;
Dimitris Kitsos as Apostolis