Repo! A Ópera Genética

I watched the second showing in Atlanta tonight. Some disclaimers:

As a fan of musicals, especially musicals that are not your usual fare, my expectations were high. I love Rocky Horror, was an avid fan for many years, and have been one of those who can quote not only the whole musical but all those lovely shout out lines in between. I also am a fan of stage musicals, and I would have to say Sweeney Todd has been my favorite since I first heard the music back in the early 90's. So I'm not afraid of a little blood with my music.

I also am a big fan of the Buffy musical. So I like Anthony Head's voice and acting. I should be foaming at the mouth at this movie. It's like it was made for me.

Unfortunately, I walked out of the movie thinking it was okay. Not great, but okay. That's when I ran into the fans, dressed like the characters and all chatting about how great it was. And it clicked.

This is supposed to be the next Rocky Horror... but without the long agonizing wait for a cult following. This was insta-cult classic! Just add water! The problem is, it's just not as good.

Believe me, I wanted it as much as the next Rocky/Buffy/Brightman fan, but the failing for me was in the music. I'm even a fan of this style of music, and it was not catchy. It was patchy. There were a few songs that were okay, but none of them were memorable. I'm not singing bits of them right now, and after a good musical you should be. As I talked to some of the fans who were wearing the costumes (some of whom I actually knew), their response to my critique was that "it grows on you" and that "I need to see it a few times".

They were gonna like this movie regardless, because they need another movie like Rocky Horror. And who doesn't? It gets boring watching the same movie for years and years - I know, I did it. But it's just not as good. And everyone is trying so hard to make it good.

This leads me to my last comment - I sat in front of a die-hard fan who was trying as hard as he could to make this movie great. He laughed the loudest and even tried to "Rockyfy" the movie by inserting his own shout-out comments. I remember thinking, "Dude, this isn't that movie" and I was only 5 minutes into it.

Don't try to make a movie good. Be objective. Even if it's your favorite kind of movie, don't be afraid to say that it's not that good. Wait for the ones that are.

This modern, actually futuristic, opera is unlike anything I've seen. Many of its qualities remind me of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' a film that was never on my list of favorites. This is better simply because it's able to hold together a more plausible and serious story yet still present itself in the aesthetic of a psychedelic musical. It blends brutality with comedy and music very effectively, in fact, there were far more laughs in our theater than anything else. The interactions between the characters as they sing their parts make for great character development and story progression simultaneously. The character's themselves are all well performed, including Paris Hilton (what happens to her needs to be seen, not described). I'm not the type to like weird, cult films but this held my attention. It's definitely worth a viewing, and if you have time to immerse yourself, then it's definitely worth some good applause.

I have been to cult films, I have been to great grand openings of everything from movies to books to games to this and that. If there is an opening, I will go to it. This movie... this entire experience, it was like nothing I've ever been to in my life.

People are asking whether or not this type of movie will gain 'cult' status, but the fact of the matter is... it already has. To quote Darren: "I'm standing up here, and I see that seventy percent of you are in costume, and the others are saying 'Damnit, why didn't I dress up?'." Dressing up isn't all that makes a cult, the fans are. The fact of the matter is, this movie has a rabid, feasting fanbase that would gladly hog-tie and grapple you to the movie just so that you have the experience of seeing it.

Those who say that this movie is crap, that it doesn't have an audience, and that the music is (my personal favorite) 'atonal', either weren't watching, listening or paying any attention to it at all. This movie is worth far more than anything I've seen in theatres for years. It is easily the most unique experience of my life.

I'd rather see something completely unique, even if it's offensive, gritty, shot with hand-held camera and staring sock puppets than watch anymore of the 'wannabe' good movies that have been coming out. These 'Masterpieces' that people consider to be SO amazing have nothing on a movie like this. This movie is untouchable, it is completely beyond all words.

Everything about this movie has a unique touch that is completely noticeable in absolutely every scene and song. It is an insult to creativity and artistry that a movie such as this should be shoved into only seven cities and outcasting all those who want to watch it so badly.

Myself and two friends drove down from Canada to watch it in Seattle, and we weren't the only ones, and some of the people at our showing were from Texas. This movie will surpass any movie this year through the years, simply because of the fans.

Do NOT miss watching this movie. If you can watch it, even if the theatre is three or four hours away... DO IT. Go in costume, shriek and have the best time of your life.

Such a movie gives me hope - that sometimes between all the remakes, prequels, sequels, reboots and directors cuts and whatever bores we still get now and then a gem to watch.

What the world needs are certainly more such fine imaginations like Repo! The Genetic Opera. Somehow the movie reminds me a little of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and that's for sure not the worst reference.

Well, the genetic opera is filled with fine ideas, gore, slash and some good songs. It is an explosion of blood compared with all the blood- and lifeless productions which flood the screens of cinema and all the networks nowadays.

If you like musicals and gore, this is made for loving you - and don't forget to watch The Devil's Carnival, also directed by Darren Lynn Bousman: a horror musical.

There are two ways in which a movie can succeed.

One—it can have a fully realized plot that works to explain some larger subtextual moral. It can demonstrate a mastery of technical and thematic areas and create an emotional response in the viewer. This is the route that most critics look for when giving a positive review. Films like Schindler's List. On the Waterfront. A Streetcar Named Desire.

The other way in which a movie can succeed is with ideas. This type of movie doesn't have to make sense in the same way that a traditional film does. It simply has to take you somewhere you have never been, and hopefully throw your mind through a few loops along the way. Films like El Topo. The Fountain. Eraserhead. Gummo. The Exterminating Angels.

Repo! The Genetic Opera definitely falls into the latter category.

The story, told entirely through song, details the intersecting secrets of people living in a world where a mysterious virus has caused random organ failure and forced people to resort to leasing cloned organs, at a very high price.

There is so much whimsy in this film that it almost becomes an absurdist fairytale. It skips and jumps from one homage to the next, cribbing notes from Rocky Horror in one scene before moving on to Rigoletto in the next. Genres and archetypes are thrown up against one another and mashed together with reckless abandon mixing Grand Guignol with Sondheim and Disney with Faces of Death. It cuts together the pieces of our collective pop culture consciousness the same way that the antagonists cut together new forms for their bodies.

And it's wickedly funny too.

Picking up where the ultimate consumers of Romero's shopping malls left off, Repo! makes for a brutal satire of consumer culture where human flesh is a commodity bought and sold with government approval. People have designer spines and get upgrades on their bodies when they go in for maintenance on their artificial organs. Starlets don't forget to wear panties, they forget to sew on their new faces.

Darren Lynn Bousman has made a name for himself as a go-to guy for over the top, operatic gore and he doesn't shy away from it here. Repo! is often tremendously bloody with sanguine spilling left and right, often directly on top of naked flesh. He takes what he learned making Saw II--IV and pushes in into overdrive as he uses it to skewer one satirical target after the next.

Normally I am one to shy away from sexualized violence. I find it repulsive and saddening, but here, Bousman has found that perfect mix between sexy and grotesque. Though the bloodletting is vicious, it never spills over into elaborate rape fantasy. It is a shame that he is no longer attached to the Hellraiser relaunch.

The cast, made up of a bizarre collection of geek favorites, musicians and world famous opera singers is almost weirder than the movie's central conceit. Paul Sorvino is brilliant fun as the patriarch who controls the world but finds himself unable to defeat cancer. Sorvino is fascinating to watch when he is let loose and he has a singing voice to rival any star of stage. Sarah Brightman is also quite good in a small roll that is entirely divorced from her signature turn in Phantom of the Opera. The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Alexa Vega is strong as the cloistered daughter of the eponymous organ ripper and Anthony Stewart Head outdoes his Buffy singing, even as his role is too close to that of Giles. Meanwhile Bill Mosely is obnoxious and all over the place, playing his seventh version of Chop-top while Paris Hilton is actually shockingly watchable as Amber Sweet, a heightened reality version of herself. But the real standout is Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy. The man steals the show as a deformed lothario who has a nasty habit of killing his lovers.

At a point, the film becomes as scattershot as the cast list with some moments hitting it out of the park while others miss wildly. By the end of the film one would be hard pressed to explain how the characters all end up in the same place, but it has long since ceased to matter because you've either accepted that the film is fairly divorced from reality, or else, you've walked out of the theater. I stayed, and loved every minute of it.

When I see a movie like this, I want to be taken to a new world. Somewhere strange and alien. The futuristic retro-chic of the Repo's alternate dimension is vibrant and dazzling, it's a whirling dervish of colors and styles. And though it never comes together, the overwhelming strangeness of it is intoxicating. The music is not for everyone, and the bloodletting is extreme, but Repo! offers something rarely seen at the multiplex--originality.

A-

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