Repo! The Genetic Opera
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich
featuring: Terrance Zdunich, Alexa Vega, Anthony Stewart Head, Bill Moseley, Paris Hilton, Ogre, Sarah Brightman
Lionsgate, Release Date: November 7, 2008
www.repo-opera.com
This absolutely gorgeous film combines the art direction of Suspiria, the lighthearted and colorful quality of The Fifth Element, and the darker aspects of The Crow into one big musical with a great industrial score. It starts of slow, so sit through the first 30 minutes of exposition and awkward comic book inserts and you'll be pleasantly surprised by this Goth rock opera. You won't be surprised by how bland Paris Hilton is as Amber Sweet, a sexy, vacuous debutante addicted to plastic surgery but you will be shocked at how Sarah Brightman's voice dazzles. Repo is a film of contradictions; when it works, it works, when it doesn't, it's embarrassing.
The place: the not-to-distant future. It's a very computer-graphic world where the skies are permanently gray and smoke continually pours out of Dickensian factories. Human beings have experienced an epidemic of organ failures due to pollution, overpopulation, or any other imagined future problem. GeneCo., a powerful company owned by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino)sells organs to the sick and then repossesses them when the patients don't pay. The grisly Repo Man is the one who comes to get your organs when you owe and he's dressed complete with gas mask and rubber trench coat to terrify you. Young Shilo (Alexa Vega) has a serious blood disorder that prevents her from going outside . (Not that she'd want to – the future is apparently a bleak and grey nightmare landscape. Of course, when she does sneak out, she goes to the cheeriest of places: the graveyard). Shilo soon runs afoul of this Repo Man and a grave robber (Terrance Zdunich) who tells her about the world of illegal drugs, corpse-robbers, and the Largo family. Desperate to learn the truth about the death of her mother and to overcome her blood disease, Shilo is lured by Rotti Largo into a plot against her own father, Nathan Wallace (Anthony Stewart head), who is Largo's oldest enemy. Of course, Largo's three children Amber (Paris Hilton), Luigi Largo (Bill Moseley) and Pavi Largo (Ogre of Skinny Puppy) don't want anyone new coming in to the picture that might be a possible threat to their inheritance, and plot accordingly.
The Repo Man about to take back some one's intestines
Everyone in this movie has too much eyeliner on. That aside, there is definitely a dark and terrible cloud hanging over everything in this film, with capitalism playing a key part in the misery of the common person. With the grave robber as narrator for all intents and purposes, the plot of Repo only becomes clear after about 30 minutes of expository songs and comic book slide shows telling us everyone's personal history. If you can get past this half hour, you'll be well rewarded with a gorgeous display of gore and beauty, great music and moving performances. Sarah Brightman plays 'Blind Mag', the poster woman for GeneCo., who sings nightly at a GeneCo. sponsored event called The Genetic Opera.Her performance in the film is one of the more serious and lively, with an element of grace and beauty that embodies Gothic sentiments. She becomes embroiled in the plot of the Largo family, of course, and soon finds out she is in danger of becoming the Repo man's next victim.
The Grave Robber, who has the best songs in the whole movie
Repo doesn't combine its cartoonish qualities with its serious ones very well. The Largo family, in particularly Hilton, Ogre, and Moseley, are always out of tune with the rest of the film and their scenes literally stop the action and the film's effectiveness. Also annoying is the constant use of pretty women as 'props' throughout Repo. In music sequences, anonymous naughty-nurses who supposedly work for GeneCo. will come in to seductively dance or do background vocals, often affecting lesbian grinding and kissing and serving no purpose in the film at all except to make you lose respect for the director.
I'm not sure, but I think Paris Hilton tried in this film.
Repo's strongest point, however, is that the movie looks fucking great. I mean, the art direction makes Tim Burton look like a Kindergarten teacher. Rivaled only by something as dark as the artwork in the original American McGee's Alice PC game, Repo has no qualms about showing us some blood or some gore with our glittering black roses, computer eyeballs getting gouged, and creepy old mansions with secret passageways. The kind of world Marilyn Manson might envision in a stage show, Repo's scenery makes a very strong visual impression. The good casting (aside from Ogre, Hilton, and Moseley) also goes a long way to make this movie riveting by the time you get to the end of the film. Several of the songs are incredibly good and almost prompt a soundtrack-buying. Some other songs are not so fortunate.
Weird shit happens and Anthony Stewart Head is awesome
Repo isn't so much a brand new invention as it is a combination of elements of different films styles and direction. There's something vaguely Dune-ish about the storyline and the characters, and also Blade Runner-y about the setting. There's a lightheartedness almost Lemony-Snickett-esque, and when Anthony Stewart Head starts singing I swear it becomes an episode of musical Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But it is a beautiful movie, one that Goths, death rockers, punk rockers, and those black-clothed dreamer types will easily be able to identify with. I am not sure how easily your average frat boy and his date will be able to swallow this labor of love from Saw II and III director Darren Lynn Bousman; it's a little more hardcore than even some Hot Topic frequenters will care to see. It also requires a good deal of patience and appreciation for style that's not usually present in the average moviegoer. Connoisseurs of horror and cult films will love Repo: The Genetic Opera. Unfortunately, they're not the ones who make the numbers at the box office.
Those 'naughty nurses" I was talking about
