American Zombie

American Zombie is the story of the zombie community in Los Angeles. A mockumentary, comedy, and issues film, American Zombie slightly humorously follows several fictional zombies, or revenants as they prefer to be called. I didn't know that this film was actually supposed to be a statement about racism or civil rights going into it, but that became clear as the film progressed.

The fictional zombies themselves are mildly funny. Judy, an asian zombie, tries the hardest to hold onto her human past. She collects cat statues, makes scrapbooks, works at an organic food company, and is searching for a human boyfriend. Lisa, by far the funniest, is a florist who specializes in funeral arrangements while pursuing her not-so-good art. Ivan, a dud of a character, is a teenager that happens to be a zombie. Joel (pronounced ho-el) is the founder of ZAG, Zombie Advocacy Group, which puts on Live Dead, a zombie Woodstock. What happens at Live Dead is the big twist of the film...

The film is told from the perspective of real life documentary filmmakers Grace Lee and John Solomon, who are parodying themselves. This is another theme of the movie that some viewers may find pretentious, in that American Zombie is something of a tongue-in-cheek diatribe on documentary film-making. Many reviews I've read have claimed it's boring, and that's a fair assessment but the humor is more quiet and not a goofy in-your-face attempt at garnering laughs. The other biggest complaint is that the last third of the film takes a serious turn, but that's the point and I didn't mind it. The events of Live Dead shift the documentary's focus both in the film and the film itself. Also, there is so much foreshadowing to the climax that I don't know why people didn't see it coming.

I recommend this film if you have nothing better to do, but thankfully it's not too long. It's a wee bit boring but there's some twists that make it possibly worthwhile in the end. Perhaps that was part of the point, in that some documentaries can be hideously boring (read: Food, Inc. Waste of time!)