(Surprisingly) Rare Flix: Repo Chick

How does nobody seem to be aware of this?  Today's film is Repo Chick, the sort-of Sequel to Alex Cox's Cult Classic Repo Man.  That film has gone through quite a resurgence in notoriety in recent years.  It even has an official Criterion Collection release on both DVD and Blu-Ray.  That begs the question- why does nobody seem to be aware of this film?  It was made in 2009, so it hasn't had much time to disappear from the public eye.  The film tells the tale of a young heiress trying to make something of herself- even if she's only doing it because she has to.  The film is warped and weird in a way that reminds me a lot of Quentin Dupiex. In other words, I'm pretty sure that a certain Maynard...I mean, Austrian will probably not like it.  The film does a really weird visual trick that I won't SPOIL just yet.  I'll save that for the review, since I want you to keep reading.  To find out whether you'll want to know more about this film, read on...

The intro sets up a weird sort of Chekhov's Gun in the form of some mysterious Cold War-Era missiles that are still missing.

They'll be important to the plot...in about an hour.  Until then, you won't hear another word about them.

These three- which include Character Actor Xander Berkeley and over-user of plastic surgery Karen Black- decide that our heroine is cut off.  She's basically a more-ridiculous version of Paris Hilton, so it seems logical.

Get used to this Green Screen too.

With no money, our heroine goes out with her friends- read: entourage- and tries to make a living.  What can someone with no actual skills do?

Maybe this guy in a cowboy hat can help Sanjaya over here find an answer.

The solution: become a titular Repo Chick.  She takes to this surprisingly-well, as her unearned sense of entitlement is well-trained.

Before you ask- this car effect is silly and pointless.  I know.

While demoted to working with Rosanna Arquette, our heroine decides to go after a big ticket Repo item: a missing train worth *Dr. Evil impression* $1,000,000.

With her boyfriend, she tracks it down and gets on-board.  She discovers that the people running it are an extreme group of Vegan Radicals who want to ban Golf.  I don't get to say that every day, now do I?

Surely this crazy man has all of the answers.  Well, he is the Director, after all.

If you're wondering why he's in Black and White, then you're clearly not on board with this film's bizarre tone yet.

Our heroine manages to save the day in her own sort of way and everyone just sort of moves on with their lives.  Were you expecting a more clear-cut resolution from this film?  The End.

This is one weird, wacky film.  The plot is pretty basic and doesn't always seem to go somewhere.  It's an odd mix of aimless plotting and straight-forward writing.  It seems to be going nowhere (while still being kind of fun) and then suddenly starts speeding along.  It seems to have a more cohesive plot overall than any of Dupiex's films so far though.  The biggest pro and con here is the film's unique visual style.  Cox filmed nearly all of the film in front of a Green Screen and put all sort of crazy stuff in the background.  It's basically what The Amazing Bulk was trying to do, only not done so stupidly.  The joke is that they 'Changed the Dimensions to Protect the Innocent.'  What this means is that most of the sets you see in wide shots are obviously tiny models and the Actors are often inserted into shots with them . It actually works pretty well, even if it looks incredibly-silly (see below).  Why it was done anyone's guess- although you could probably just ask Alex Cox.  If you're in the mood for something weird and silly, you'll probably like this.  If you aren't a big fan of quirky stuff like this though, you're best sticking to other stuff.

Next up, my second Project Terrible film.  Will a Creature be my downfall or just make me not give a shit like everyone else?  Stay tuned...