Repo Man

Kamala: Repo Man is this weird independent cult film from 1984. It is about this 18 year old punk from LA who becomes a repo man when Bud, a veteran repo man played by Harry Dean Stanton, tricks him into repossessing someone's car and taking it to their lot.

Emily: This movie made no sense to me. I had to keep pausing it so Kamala could explain things. Emilio Estevez is the young disillusioned punk kid who becomes a repo man, there were a lot of car chases and people getting fried by the radiation (the neutron bomb, which vaporizes people but not buildings) from the trunk of the Chevy Malibu. Speaking of that-the glowing trunk of the car is probably an homage to the glowing suitcase that set people on fire from Kiss Me, Deadly. Repo Man brought its director, Alex Cox critical acclaim and it's cited as one of the first contemporary independent movies. The fact that it wasn't a very "deep" movie (a fact that Kamala had to keep reminding me of) did not at all take away from its enjoyability.

Kamala: This movie has become a cult classic because it's full of aliens and stuff about time travel, and also humorously portrays the LA punk scene of the 1980's. The conceit of labeling all the food and drink as exactly what it was (Cereal simply marked "Cereal," beer labeled "beer," etc) is neat. There are a lot of interconnecting motifs in this movie. One example of this is one man in the Repo yard talks about how if one person is thinking about a plate of shrimp, another person will say "plate" or "shrimp" or "plate of shrimp." And these words appear a lot throughout the film.

Emily: Practically every character in this movie appears more than once, even very minor characters like Otto's friend Kevin. This movie is just choc-full of weird stuff that only really attentive people or people who have seen it more than once can really pick up on-something I noticed though, is that whenever we see a car making a turn, it signals the opposite direction.

Kamala: The soundtrack is made up of really awesome punk songs and the score is fairly reminiscent of Tarantino and I really want it so I can listen to it in my car.

Emily: I think the movie had a lot to do with the punk movement. Alex Cox directed Sid & Nancy (a movie about Sex Pistol's bassist Sid Vicious and his relationship with Nancy Spungen). The Circle Jerks, a rather famous California-based punk band, appear in a lounge scene. Also Black Flag has several songs on the soundtrack.

Kamala: Like Paul Schrader (who worked as a taxi driver and based his screenplay off of the experience) Alex Cox worked as a repo man in LA and based the screenplay off of some of his experiences. This movie is definitely worth watching if you're into odd sci-fi cult movies.

Emily: Pretty crazy.