Repo Man

Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Olivia Barash, Susan Barnes, Tracey Walter

Directed by: Alex Cox

RS: 4of 4 Stars

1984 Universal Pictures Drama

When punk rock exploded in the U.K., young British director Alex Cox was trapped in California. Furious at having missed out on punk's crucial moment in his homeland, Cox did the next best thing: He made Repo Man. One giant nihilism-smothered sickly grin, the film depicts an otherworldly Los Angeles subculture in the time of Reagan and nuclear fear. Tan and snotty Emilio Estevez plays Otto, who, fired from his job and dumped by his girl, wanders the streets until he's recruited into the life of repossessing cars. Mentored in the art by speed freak Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Otto meets UFO conspiracy theorists, rival repo men and FBI agents who have a less than healthy interest in the contents of the trunk of a mysterious '64 Chevy Malibu. As Black Flag's anthems infuse the radioactive pallor of L.A.'s dessicated landscape, Otto encounters Miller (Tracey Walter), a corner philosopher who tells him, "S'pose you're thinking 'bout a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody says 'plate,' or 'shrimp,' or 'plate of shrimp,' just outta the blue.... It's all part of the cosmic unconscious." A cosmic unconscious that's brilliantly manifested by this deeply weird film.