Octavio is Dead! Written and directed by Sook-Yin Lee - Eight out of 10

Octavio is Dead! Written and directed by Sook-Yin Lee

Eight out of 10

Having HBO 1, 2 and 3, together with Cinemax 1 and 2 can be blessing, albeit most of the fare on the main channels can be tedious, series that have been acclaimed but do not constitute an attraction for this cinephile.

However, occasionally, interesting films like Octavio is Dead are programmed and then we can forget about Game of Thrones, ‘winter is coming”, The Avengers and the other cartoon characters on display on HBO 1, 2 and 3.

Sarah Gadon is a talented, exceptional actress that gives a brilliant performance in the leading and challenging role of Tyler.

In the first few scenes, she loses her job.

She lives with her mother, Joan aka the famous, wonderful Rosanna Arquette.

Murphy’s laws and pessimists would have us believe that one adversity is never alone and…

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”

The science of happiness, positive psychology, demonstrates though that this is not a correct statement, on the contrary, people with a positive, optimistic attitude, live longer.

They also have more success in their private and professional lives, they get sick ;less often and when that happens, they stay ill for shorter periods and the benefits are too numerous to list here.

Alas, tragedies take place and when those who are positive find it difficult to cope with unemployment and the loss of a dear one and in the case of Tyler, these two traumas come together.

Vanessa Tate is the lawyer who comes to the house to announce that:

Octavio Is Dead!

Octavio was Tyler’s father and in his will he left an apartment – in the first place, Joan rejects this inheritance, infuriated with the memory of the deceased and the chagrin he had caused.

Nevertheless, Tyler decides to travel to the flat and this where she would be able to see her late father…well, his ghost or an apparition, perhaps a character from her vivid imagination that talks to her.

The protagonist is also involved in other outré events, trying to decipher in the first place her own identity, probably, but also making the effort to find a strange man that attracts her attention.

She walks into what looks like a bar, only to be abused, eventually pushed and even slapped by the manager, perhaps the owner of the establishment that turns out to be a private club.

To gain access into a men’s only facility, Tyler dresses up like a man, cuts her hair short and this is surely part of the self-exploration process and her other sexual identity could well be the main reason for the disguise.

She meets a man that she likes and the attraction is mutual, they kiss and then the young man talks about the ancient Greeks rituals and rules, with homosexual bonds at the center of their society.

When the intimacy leads to an attempt – perhaps more than that, I am not sure – at penetration, the woman pretending to be man is exceeded and stands up with violent rejection.

She locks into the bathroom while the would be partner for coitus tries to sooth and explain that this reaction is natural – he thinks this is an unexperienced, perhaps virgin boy.

Maybe Tyler is hallucinating or it could be just a wild imagination, but when she finally comes out of the restroom, she sees her late parent having sex with the one that she also desires.

Furthermore, Octavio – his specter, the figure in her nightmares or a demon – comes to talk to his daughter, trying to explain himself and say that he could not stand it anymore and he had to do it.

When faced with the fact that the young man he has desired is in fact a woman, this reluctant Romeo is repelled in the first place – thinking or sure that he is gay – and the woman has a good point when she states:

What is wrong? It was such a pleasure for you to keep kissing me, only a short while ago… not in those words, but with that message.

This is not the best motion picture of the year, although it could be argued that it is more rewarding than Black Panther or A Star is Born – it was for this viewer, in spite of the admiration I generally have for Bradley Cooper – not for the aforementioned flawed film.