Touches You

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

IMPORTANT NOTE: AZ IS DEFINITELY NOT A COMEDY! - there must have been a mistake in the classification. Emotions are all represented in this movie, from hope to pathos to sadness, but certainly not humor.If your average idea of a good movie is 120 minutes of explosions and flying limbs, move along, there's nothing to see here. If, though, you're interested in something new, fresh, giving a second birth to a topic already exploited to death and beyond, you're in for your money.In world where Zombies retain their mental faculties after turning, and try coping with their ailment, American Zombie is a mockumentary (fake documentary) following the afterlife of several revenants, each having a distinct approach towards their status (legally dead), future, lack of memory regarding event before their legal death and, most of all, their place in society. But activist, new age tinker or desperate optimists, they all have one thing in common: well kept secrets. Every aspect of this movie is impeccable, and really leaves us with the impression that the mock filming team has done the best they could to uncover the truth, even it the film deliberately leaves some questions unanswered to add to its realism. The acting is surprisingly masterful, techniques used are not over the top, yet not sub standard either (no overused shaking and bad image quality) ; the mock filming team is supposed to be made of professionals, and we're watching professional result. Grace Lee manages to fuse narrative and documentation to keep a dramatic curve that will hook you until the last minute, and deliver a spectacular piece of entertainment which will make you wonder for a minute or two whether or not zombies are real. A must see, definitely.

This is not a conventional zombie movie, this takes the stance that zombies are not necessarily brain munching mindless creatures, but some of them, while still being dead still retain most cognitive function. A group sets out to make a documentary on zombies, specifically centred on ZAG the Zombie Activist Group and how they are fitting into modern American Society. It should also be pointed out that this cast and crew were generally quite inexperienced when they made this but it's not obvious for the most part.***SPOILERS*** Some of it is quite black humoured which is good, there are few Zombie movies that have any humour at all and the whole documentary feel to it is reasonably well done, particularly when the crew argue amongst themselves about what to do. However it is a little too long and the ending stinks of a hasty re- write

The craftsmanship is topnotch, the performances solid, the writing sound. There are some astute observations here and there about life after death- and life before death. Like the risen dead in THEY CAME BACK, the undead in American ZOMBIE aren't just mindless, flesh-eating zombies (not that there's anything wrong with mindless, flesh-eating zombies) (check out my black and white comic, CAPE FEAR COMICS, available from comiXpress, which is dedicated to George A. Romero himself, and you'll see whereof I speak). The socio-political ramifications of the dead rising from their graves is explored (sometimes hilariously, sometimes more sublimely), but it's the superb film-making that makes this one worthy of a nice, long look.

When asked if there are flesh-eating zombies out there, Joel--an undead political activist--quickly retorts: "are there flesh-eating humans?" Grace Lee not only directs American Zombie, but plays herself in the film. She teams up with John Solomon--also playing himself--to film a documentary project about an undead community living in L.A. The duo quickly find out that some sort of virus, brought on by a violent death, is plaguing its residents, and ultimately zombifying an entire community.American Zombie is a veritable slice-of-life of four "revenants"--Joel, founder of Z.A.G.: the Zombie Advocacy Group; Judy, who naively searches for true love and denies her zombiness; Ivan, a convenience store clerk who aspires to be a writer; and Lisa, a florist specializing in funeral arrangements for other people--who secretly longs for her own. Each character represents an average person with average emotions and average problems, showing us that the undead aren't too different than the living. Well, except for their rotting flesh, of course.What's really great about the film is the absolute mockery the protagonists make of themselves. Grace, the ever-so-astute naturalistic documentarian, and John, the bumbling investigative reporter, are at odds with each other throughout the film, and ultimately to a fault. What makes this film not-so-great is twofold: the running time and the conclusion. I think the film would have been better as a short. While it's in-depth look at each character is interesting, I'm not sure if its compelling enough to steer the audience towards anything meaningful. And even worse is the ending, after which, the audience can no longer sympathize with the plight of the community. Unfortunately, what could have been a provocative social commentary, becomes nothing more than a sensationalistic--albeit unique, comedic and funfilled--mockumentary.