Last night at the Venice Film Festival, the spiritual sequel to writer/director Alex Cox’s punk rock, sci-fi cult classic Repo Man, Repo Chick, premiered. Co-produced by David Lynch, the film has loomed with some hesitation in the minds of fans as an oddity, because it was shot almost entirely on green screen using RED cameras and an indie budget. After the jump, we’ll take a look at the first review by Variety, whose reviewer seemed surprised to like it as much as she did, if not as much as the original. I’ve also included photos and videos from the production, and I’ll update in the comments as more reviews come in…

This sentence sums up the review’s sentiments like a spinning hub cap: “A wacky blend of leftist, anti-establishment politics, eye-searing colors, outre costumes and manic overacting, Repo Chick could be likened to what you would get if Michael Moore directed an episode of Nick Jr.kiddie series Lazy Town.” Interesting.

If you’re wondering who the main star is above, that’s Jaclyn Jonet who has only performed in one other feature, Cox’s little seen 2007 effort Searchers 2.0. Before we look at Variety’s review, let’s get the film’s central concept out of the way:  ”against the background of the credit crunch and the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, where repossessions of homes, cars and other forms of property is at a new high. The repo business has expanded to everything from boats, houses, aeroplanes, small nations…children.”

Jonet plays the titular character, named Pixxi de la Chasse, a rich chick who is cut off by her family for her spoiled, reckless shenanigans. In need of cash and youthful redemption, she enters the modern repo business after being hired by the Velvet Glove Acceptance Corp. Quibbles in the review bring up a scrambled sense of direction and a low batting average for laughs…

Unfortunately, for reasons too complicated to explain, the pic morphs halfway through into a thriller spoof, as Pixxi goes in pursuit of a stolen antique train that’s being used to carry missiles by a gang of environmental terrorists. The terrorists’ ultimate demands are for the President of the United States to close all golf courses (providing the opportunity for a ranting message against the wastefulness of golf), ban the sport entirely and also make the entire government go vegan.

So far, Twitter has been light on reactions, and while these are negative, they’re merely Tweets after all…

“Don’t ever see “Repo Chick” unless you like model trains, valley girls, and bad green screen.” - @KyleWhite

“The mere fact that some films are never distributed and ‘a relief. Repo Chick How did you get into Horizons??” - @cinemablog_org (translated from Italian)

Here’s a behind-the-scenes interview with returning actor, Del Zamora, who discusses his confidence in the sequel to pay respects to the original while updating accordingly…

And an interview about the intensive green screen work…

Even with all the recent and new info and images, I’m having a difficult time conjuring how this film plays. What about you?  No details on the film making it over to the States sans festivals just yet. After a public spat over the rights to the title with Universal–they have a unrelated film in production called Repo Men–it’s nice to see Cox prevail. If you’re interested in Alex Cox’s career and M.O. as a diehard indie filmmaker, check out our review of his tell-all book X Films.