L.A. Zombie (2010)



Directed by Bruce LaBruce

*

 A completely pointless infuriating follow up to Otto. While that film demonstrated that LaBruce has ideas backing up his provocations, this is nothing but gross sex. Wound fucking, mindless sex and a confusing narrative that never coalesces into something meaningful. Especially frustrating given there are moments that stumble towards something poignant. The aching loneliness that pervaded Otto is here, hiding just out of sight, giving this awfully dull film an air of melancholy.

 LaBruce is just interested in grossing out by shoving a weird penis in an open chest wound for no reason other than to shock. Shock works best when paired with narrative or thematic value and that has none. As a porn film (I watched the hardcore director's cut version), this also fails. The sex, after it gets past the gross bit, is formulaic and predictable. The orgy scene that ends the film doesn't even feature Sagat and feels like time wasting. One positive, the score is neat and very un-pornlike, profoundly sad and beautiful.

 If LaBruce was aiming to critique the current gay scene, I don't know what his argument was. This film's abysmal failure makes it the worst of his works I've seen yet. Even in the other frustrating works, there was ideas, something to grasp hold of. Here we get nothing. It just makes his work with Otto shine even brighter.

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