Cinema Club pick for the week. The vibes are strong here, just not sure they're for me.
Otto (Emilio Estevez) is a punk kid trying to make it in a strict corporate world. He gets suckered in to the legally right but morally wrong world of repossessing cars under the mentorship of Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Lite (Sy Richardson), and Miller (Tracey Walter) who try and teach him the Zen-like code of the Repo Man. Things are going well and Otto is learning the ropes when a car alert comes in for a '68 Chevy with a reward of $20,000. Every repo outfit in the city, plus several government agencies are after this car, or more accurately, what's in the trunk.
You can easily see the influence this had on movies that followed but I'm still not sure that's a positive. There are a lot of That Guy actors, proving once again why they consistently got work. The most competent and badass character is Marlene (Vonetta McGee), the receptionist. I personally love the trope of one Machiavellian background character maneuvering things behind the bumblefuck main guy but your mileage may vary on that.
Also, the soundtrack is excellent.
This is very much a cult classic elevated to actual classic status by the Criterion Collection. I didn't think it was great, but I am also very much not the target audience. It's not currently streaming anywhere except as a rental through YouTube, Amazon, or whatever other play service you like.
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