Bricen X

Repo Man is one of those movies that I respect a little more than I actually enjoyed. It’s clearly a satire of ’80s America, consumerism, authority, punk culture, and just about every institution it can get its hands on. Sometimes that really works, and sometimes I think it becomes a little too satirical for its own good. A lot of the comedy is so exaggerated that it starts to feel more like caricature than commentary. Maybe some of that is a generational thing and a few references just went over my head, but there were definitely moments where I wished the film trusted its ideas a bit more instead of screaming them. Ironically, I found the movie at its best when it slowed down. The scene where Otto silently looks out the car window at the people on Skid Row is fantastic. It’s one of the few moments where his nihilistic shell cracks and he seems to recognize the system he’s become part of. That hit way harder than most of the broader comedy. My favorite scene, though, is when the punk gets shot in the convenience store and tries to turn his dying moments into some profound revolutionary statement, only for Otto to basically tell him, “No, you’re just a kid from the suburbs like me.” It’s hilarious, but it’s also one of the smartest jokes in the movie. It’s mocking performed identity. The punk image, the revolutionary image, the outlaw image, they’re all, in many cases, just roles people are playing. Otto strips away the mythology and reminds him that they’re just ordinary kids. It’s both funny and kind of sad. I also loved all the generic packaging (“BEER,” “FOOD,” etc.). It’s such a simple visual gag, but it perfectly captures the film’s sense of humor while poking fun at consumer culture. I never really connected with Otto emotionally, though. He feels less like a traditional protagonist and more like a vessel drifting through this absurd world. I wasn’t rooting for him or against him, I was just watching him bounce between all these weird corners of America. I think that’s intentional, but it also kept me at arm’s length. The ending is bizarre in the best way. I don’t think I fully understood it, but I also think that’s kind of the point, it feels deliberately open to interpretation. The way I ended up reading it is that the only real escape from this absurd, commodified, self-destructive world is to leave the system entirely. Whether that’s what the film intended or not, it’s the interpretation that stuck with me, and I like that it leaves you thinking long after it’s over. Overall, Repo Man is messy, funny, surprisingly insightful, and occasionally too on-the-nose for me. I don’t think every joke lands, but enough of its weirdness, unpredictability, and genuinely sharp observations stuck with me that I’m glad I finally watched it.

Every weeaboo‘s waifu fantasy

Like I guess…  I mean half baked themes of trauma or whatever inauthentically imprinted on a liminal space creepy pasta with half baked characters and wack ass “monster.” The scene with them at the table is dope, but really doesn’t hit as hard or feel earned due to the lack of development and lack of care for either characters personal struggle. Production design and VFX went crazy, and I like the handheld portions of the film. Him going crazy off screen is wildly stupid IMO and a huge jump for us to just catch on too. The choking out scene is ass, and the filter they used for that had me laughing, looked like Mr Krabs meme 🤣 The whole MRI portion of it is lost on me, and I guess it’s to add ambiguity/set up a sequel, but I just feel the film didn’t really need that. I think the film honestly did too much to try and define the Backrooms. It’s certainly a blurry line of ambiguity and explanation that I don’t think was really fleshed out. I don’t know man. There’s a bunch of cool technicals, Kane did a decent job of keeping me in suspense in a not-so cheesy jump scare way, but ultimately I didn’t really feel or connect to anything. I wasn’t moved by the movie at all emotionally. Additionally, the girlfriend and boyfriend characters are fucking awful in this, and for a film with basically 5 actors that’s about half the cast giving dog shit performances and the rest are on a mid to passable level. In the end, I feel this could’ve just stayed as a YouTube/Internet thing. Making this a movie I think really takes away from what made the Backrooms interesting for me. The liminal never ending ambiguous space is dope, the memory idea could be more interesting with further definition, but it has absolutely no character or emotional development which makes it hard to feel much. The first part of the film when we were supposed to be “developing” the characters I felt the film was unwatchably boring. So in the parts where I felt the film is at its worst,  in a sense is also what I needed more of. So not sure there was a way to really save this one.  In the end, Backrooms is an undefined ambiguous idea with ambiguous parameters that this film tried to give structure to, but only delivered more ambiguity in its attempt. At some point it feels like the film forces you to essentially confront the nothingness that it’s providing and decide if you are okay being content with nothing or not. I’ll give it that-that is a unique place to put the viewer you don’t often encounter, but is that good? Honestly I’m not sure. I can say I was moderately intrigued by this and for that alone I can give it some props. Thinking more, I don’t really think this film is about anything particular, but so is the idea of Backrooms in the first place. So does that work? Are we going to let this get away with giving us nothing essentially? Should we even be looking for something? Honestly I’m scratching my head with this one, which I guess was the point??? I’m even questioning myself on that. Truly puzzling lol. I’ll be thinking about this for the next few days, may need to revisit for a more refined viewing First watch: Ehh, but also hmm