Disappointing Cult Classic of the Week: 'Repo Man' (1984)

Urban dictionary's definition of a cult classic:

1) Something that's really hip with a select group of people.
2) A popular [...] movie, which has gained a large following.  (NB: Pretty much the opposite of definition 1, but that's not an uncommon occurrence when looking for definitions of 'cult classic'.)
3) A movie that is weird as f**k.

The urban dictionary has some fascinating interpretations for words and phrases - honestly you could lose an afternoon (and what little is left of your innocence and naivety) to the website - but its third definition for 'cult classic' is as good a fit as any for Alex Cox's disjointed, but unfortunately never disarming, Repo Man.

The story follows teenage punk rocker Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez showing his range by playing Emilio Estevez) who, after getting fired as a stock clerk, starts working for a car repossession agency after being tricked into helping a repo man steal a car. And that's pretty much it for Otto's story. There are several subplots going on around him - a mad scientist driving a Chevrolet Malibu full of dead aliens, a rival car repossession agency, some punk rocker thieves who turn up every so often to liven up a scene, an underground group trying to spread the word about aliens, and an FBI agent dressed as Michael Jackson circa 1979 - but they all feel aimless and displaced, as if they've been cut from a much larger whole. Whenever Otto happens across these other storylines he often doesn't even notice them, focused as he is on the thrill of taking other people's cars and getting paid for it.

The film's slapdash (and supposedly 'raw') quality is the main thing that's endeared it to people over the years; that and a punk soundtrack which for many was era defining. You can see how the film has become a cult classic (depending on the definition you're working to), praised as it was for its wry sense of humour and an irreverent approach to storytelling which ran counter to most everything else being made at the time; but it's possible you need to have come of age in the Reagan era to appreciate how unusual it was. Watching it almost three decades after its release what's supposed to be irreverent feels directionless and meandering. A section in which the 'hero' is tortured is introduced so abruptly, shot so oddly, then abandoned with almost as much immediacy that I was left wondering if I'd imagined it. In fact that's very close to how the film felt as a whole: abrupt. Sequences that should have been left on the cutting room floor, in which characters spout cod philosophy, go on and on and on; and yet other scenes, like Otto's torture at the hands of not-Michael Jackson, which actually have the opportunity to further story or character, are given only a cursory spot in the film's 92 minute running time.

That such an oddball film could make it through the studio system is considered wonderful, but baffling. That anyone would hope for more of the same I find just as baffling.

Overall: 2/10