"The Nomi Song" is an offbeat and poignant documentary about Klaus Nomi, one of the oddest and most eccentric figures in pop music history.

Nomi was a German immigrant who came to New York in the ‘70s, and cultivated an outlandish image as an androgynous, singing, kabuki robot clown from Outer Space. He was also a talented pastry chef, but he was allergic to sugar, so he had to spit out his cakes as soon as he tasted them.

Nomi recorded a few albums and a string of singles, such as his theme "You Don’t Own Me," (sometimes it sounds like he’s singing "You don’t Nomi"), and a terrific cover of "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead" from "The Wizard of Oz." Record companies didn’t know what to do with him, and he still hadn’t had an American hit by the time he succumbed to AIDs in 1984.

"The Nomi Song" is the first feature directed by Andrew Horn, and it has garnered considerable critical acclaim. It won the Teddy Bear award for best documentary at the Berlin Film festival, and it received some rave reviews when it played in New York in January.

The film combines interviews with rare performances by Nomi. Included is a clip of Nomi doing "The Cold Song" with a full orchestra, a brief part of his legendary "Saturday Night Live" performance with David Bowie, and "Full Eclipse," which was performed with a full rock band and dancers in the film, "Urgh! A Music War!"

Nomi was a freak among freaks, and many people were afraid to see him walking down the street. But he was ahead of his time, and his image strongly influenced David Bowie, the new Romantic Movement, and many others.

His music was just as strange as his appearances. His songs tried to bridge the gap between new wave and opera, and he could sing in a falsetto voice that was as high as a female’s. Morrisey repaid a musical debt by covering Nomi’s song, "Death" on "Under the Influence."

Despite his great popularity in New York, Nomi remained an underground figure with a devoted cult of admirers in the U.S.A. When he tried to expand his audience by opening for the hair metal band, Twisted Sister, in middlebrow New Jersey, it was a prescription for disaster.

The film also includes interviews with Klaus’s beloved Aunt Trude, who contends that Klaus was always a nice down to earth guy. We never actually see her. We hear her voice while the movie focuses in on cardboard cutout of her, which has a wonderfully surreal effect.

Not everyone has good things to say about Nomi. Kristian Hoffman, the songwriter who wrote the title track on one Nomi’s albums claims that he never got royalties or credit on the album.

Unfortunately many of his friends and admirers (including new wave painter, Kenny Scharf) abandoned him when they found out that he had acquired AIDS. At that time, no one knew what it was, and everyone was afraid that might be able to contact it by just being around an AIDs victim.

"The Nomi Song" is somewhat short in running time, so it was disappointing that they didn’t use many complete numbers. The film feels incomplete, and it could’ve used more songs and info on Klaus’s friendship with David Bowie. But the film remains an oddly captivating portrait of musical weirdness that should inspire some budding artists and musicians to do also do their own thing (s).