Watch This Movie: It'll Change Your Life!

Repo Man

"Fuck you, Archie! Just for that, you're not in the gang anymore!"

Before Emilio Estevez was "Coach Bombay", he was "Otto Maddox" (as well as Two-Bit Matthews in The Outsiders, but let's not get too far off the subject). Repo Man is one of the great cult classics, and is just wierd, funny, and memorable enough to deserve such a title. Produced by ex-Monkee and video pioneer Michael Nesmith, and written and directed by Alex Cox ("Sid and Nancy"), this sci-fi/black comedy (though it's tough to label it as anything) is about Otto, a young man with no real direction in life, who just happens to stumble upon Bud (Harry Dean Stanton, delivering one of the best performances of his career), a "repo man" who tricks him into helping him steal a car, and ultimately gets him into the business, while teaching him the tricks of the trade. Throughout the film, Otto gets into a number of "tense situations" as he embarks on his new career. Along the way, he meets a love interest who gets him involved in an underground plot to get a hold of four dead aliens in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu, valued at $20,000 if found, which Bud's repo men (and their rivals, the Rodriguez brothers) are trying to get their hands on. A number of characters are named after beers (Bud, Miller, Lite), and nearly every single product shown in the film has a generic label on them, due to the producers not getting any offers for product placement (a can of food Otto eats is simply labeled "FOOD"). Not too much of a plot, excepting the alien thing, but is still hilarious, with a great soundtrack to boot.

Nathan Kavanaugh

(editors note: Nate did not choose the title for this piece. In fact, I did. And he complained about it too. He said, "Don't put words in my mouth." And to be fair, I did put words in his mouth. And I shouldn't have. He should have the inalienable right to title his articles whatever the fuck he wants and I am no better than some silly Pitchfork editor by changing things left and right without so much as a by-your-leave. Still. I told him to shut up.)