Octavio Is Dead! (2018)

What makes a movie pop? The director, yes. The star, of course. An exclamation point in the title, totally! Take Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! (1952) starring Marlon Brando; Fred Zinnemann’s Oklahoma! (1955) with Rod Steiger; Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) showcasing Elvis Presley; That Darn Cat! (1965) featuring Dean Jones; Die, Monster, Die! (1965) starring Boris Karloff; Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965); Joan Crawford in Berserk! (1967); Oliver! (1968) with Oliver Reed; Gene Kelly’s Hello, Dolly! (1969) starring Barbra Streisand; Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970); Oh! Calcutta! (1972); Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man! (1973) featuring Malcolm McDowell; Milos Forman’s Hair! with Treat Williams; Airplane! (1980) starring Leslie Nielsen; Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) with Antonio Banderas; To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) featuring Patrick Swayze; Ewan McGregor in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001); Mamma Mia! (2008) with Colin Firth; and Darren Aronofsky’s mother! (2017) starring Javier Bardem. This rule also rings true for the Canadian movie Octavio Is Dead! (2018). Thanks to the writing and direction of Sook-Yin Lee, we meet a young woman named Tyler (Sarah Gadon) who unexpectedly inherits a treasure trove of personal items from her late and estranged father (Raoul Trujillo). As such, she begins to wear his clothing which leads to an exploration of identity. The film includes Rosanna Arquette, Dimitris Kitsos, and Mr. Trujillo’s naked T&A! In a bedroom scene, the nude dude smooches a shirtless Dimitris. Needless to say, these hot hunks make this supernatural drama super gay!