Review of Repo Man (1984) by Zoran S — 27 May 2011

After having seen director Alex Cox's exceptional biopic "Sid and Nancy", I felt a desire to check out this cult classic that was also helmed by him. What I discovered was a refreshingly odd and original film that blends the repo business, aliens, punk rock culture, and several other bizarre nuances to create a really different type of movie.

Emilio Estevez stars as the young punk Otto, a kid with all attitude who in many ways is more clean cut than he wants to let on; when he enters into the world of legal car theft (i.e. the repo business) he is led on a collection of adventures that take the movie far outside what would be expected from the original premise.

Some of the movie is overly campy and the film has 80s shmaltz written all over it, but in many ways this can be considered one of the films charms AND one of its biggest drawbacks. Cox has a knack for diving into the surreal on a shoestring budget, and its no wonder this weird little indie flick is so beloved by indie crowds.

While I don't think its a perfect film, its definitely a film with some different ideas and is a lot of fun.