Film

'Repo! The Genetic Opera': A modern rocky horror picture show

By Daniel Montgomery

Friday, November 7, 2008

I don’t know how to review this film. Sometimes it’s enough just to describe it.

‘Repo! The Genetic Opera’ — doesn’t it seem like none of those words belong in the title of the same film? — takes place roughly fifty years in the future. An epidemic of organ failures has thrown the world into chaos, but the GeneCo corporation has developed a way to engineer new organs and charges recipients exorbitant fees for the life-saving surgery. The recipient has the option to pay in installments — like a car loan — but if he falls behind on payments his organs are forcibly retrieved by the Repo Man. Gives new meaning to the phrase “predatory lending.”

In this grim dystopia, which suggests German Expressionism interpreted by Marilyn Manson, there is Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the megalomaniacal founder of GeneCo, who is dying and must decide which of his three degenerate children will inherit the company: Luigi (Bill Moseley), a homicidal maniac who takes to stabbing underlings to death with little provocation; Amber (Paris Hilton), who is addicted to surgery and frequently alters her appearance; or Pavi (Ogre), who also like to change his appearance, by attaching a new skin graft to his face. In a related storyline, there is a girl, Shilo (Alexa Vega), suffering from a blood disorder and cared for by her father Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head), who hides from her his secret life as the Repo Man.

Oh, and it’s a musical.

What did I think of the film? What could I possibly think of the film? I am not the target audience: I don’t subscribe to Fangoria and own no clothing made of patent leather. But to call the film unsuccessful would imply that I understand its aims. Is it a comedy? I laughed, but it’s the kind of laughter that can’t believe its eyes. Is it a satire? Repossessions in the form of violent mutilation certainly seems a fair estimation of the current economic crisis. What it is above all else is a relentless geek show, lacking only the guy who bites heads off of chickens, or maybe his scenes were cut for time.

Did I like the film? No, I didn’t like the film. The constant barrage of weirdness becomes numbing. When everything is madness, madness becomes mundane, and after a while the novelty wears off. By the time Paris Hilton’s face falls off in the third act, you start to wonder, “Is that all there is?” (I have written that sentence knowing that many of you stopped reading this review at “Paris Hilton’s face falls off” and have logged on to Fandango to reserve your tickets. I suppose I can use the rest of this space to discuss, say, fly fishing.)

But for all its tiresome eccentricity, there is no denying I was thunderstruck by this material. It’s queasily fascinating, sporadically inspired, and audacious. It is not a brainless film, and it is not an artless one. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, who helmed the last three ‘Saw’ pictures, certainly has an eye for macabre decadence, though considering the film’s garish photography and a tonal imbalance that bounces erratically between its satiric, melodramatic, and kitsch elements, it’s fair to say he lacks restraint.

He gets good performances from most of his cast. Anthony Stewart Head, the erstwhile librarian Giles from TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has a fearsomeness that he’s never demonstrated before; he gives the film its greatest emotional heft. Broadway star Sarah Brightman (The Phantom of the Opera) has a spectral presence as a singer named Blind Mag, whose functionless eyes have been replaced by artificial ones from GeneCo. There’s a spooky scene where she uses the eyes to replay images of Shilo’s deceased mother.

Paris Hilton, it must be said, acquits herself admirably to this material, playing a version of herself — a vain heiress who tries to parlay her notoriety into a singing career — but satirizing her image without vanity. In Repo! she proves to be a fair enough singer and a fair enough actress, and to her credit, it takes imagination to even participate in a film like this.

The musical score is a mixed bag. The wittiest and most affecting songs go to Head and Brightman. The Largos get the strangest; it’s possible the entire family, from the acting to the music, is meant ironically. Alexa Vega, try as she might, seems vocally and emotionally out of her depth in some of the numbers, including one that includes the lyrics “Why are my genetics such a bitch?” and another in which she rocks out about teen rebellion with Joan Jett backing her up on lead guitar (literally — Jett materializes in Shilo’s bedroom).

‘Repo!’ is a timely film, showcasing a kind of corporate greed that not only preys upon an unsuspecting populace but in fact mutilates the populace. Anyone who has lost his home as the result of unscrupulous lending practices or lost his retirement nest egg in the stock market free fall can surely relate. But I wonder if the film’s good ideas will be heard through its shock-and-awe aesthetic — loud, bloody, and gruesome. The screenplay and score are by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, based on their stage play. They make one wonder about the difference between genius and madness. Maybe a little bit a both. But maybe a little more from column B.

The films opens in NYC at The Agelika Theatre

Check out ‘Repo! The Genetic Opera’ Official Site