REPO MAN — SHOCKTOBER!

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Punk heart still beating.

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Alex Cox caught lightening in a bottle in 1984 with a snarly little L.A.-set independent movie that became a cult classic thanks to the success of its soundtrack (featuring Iggy Pop).

This kooky time-capsule political satire uses LA's hardcore punk scene for its churning dystopic social milieu that our 18-year-old Otto (Emilio Estevez) traverses while getting sucked into becoming a repo man. 

Reaganomics hangs in the smoggy air like a bad fart.

Harry Dean Stanton plays Bud, Otto's father-figure who schools Otto in the code of the repo man as they scout repos in the less glamorous neighborhoods of LA.

"A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations."
"Repo man is always intense."

Such dialogue seems written in stone, especially when the film's theme-carrier, Miller (Tracey Walter) busts out with philosophical gems like, "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

 What did he just say?

Now you've got me thinking.

Otto eats generic food at his parents house. His tweet tweet arf arf folks have given their life savings away to a televangelist. So much for college.

Otto's future looks bleak unless he can repo a certain 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu with a $20,000 reward, and a Neutron bomb-related MacGuffin in the trunk, a nice hat-tip to the plot-driver in the 1955 Cold War thriller "Kiss Me Deadly."

Endlessly watchable, "Repo Man" stands up as an inspired artistic expression amid dark social and political repression.

Here's a great excuse to kick it.

Rated R. 92 mins.

THE BIKERIDERS

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

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Writer/director Jeff Nichols based this wildly entertaining fact-based movie on photographer Danny Lyon's book, which celebrated the Illinois-based Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

Through its fictionalized narrative, "The Bikeriders" makes profound commentary on subjects regarding toxic masculinity, cult mentality, and the role of women amid man's animalistic urges.

Pack animals bite.

Nichols's beautifully formal approach is stunning to look at, and to digest on intellectual and emotional levels.

The Viet Nam War is a constant presence lurking in the film's subtext.

Inspired by a television airing of Marlon Brando's "The Wild One" (1953), truck driver family-man Johnny (Tom Hardy) starts his own motorcycle club, the Vandals in 1965.

Johnny goes so far as to adopt Brando's voice and speech patterns. Johnny's whole communal club is based on artifice.

What could go wrong with such a phony foundation for positive social interaction to occur? Add to that a repressed homosexual underpinning, and you've got problems galore.

In the words of Iggy Pop, "a heavy price for a heavy pose."

Iggy's "Stooges" era song "Down on the Street" makes narrative impact during one of the film's most harrowing sequences.

Real life is hardly as romantic as Hollywood would have you believe.

Johnny bites off more than he can chew as his Vandals Motorcycle Club grows rapidly with multiple chapters around the Midwest.

A hotbed of cult violence breeds like wildfire. Stupid is as stupid does.

Tom Hardy's Johnny hopes to pass his presidential club status on to Benny (Austin Butler), a young hothead adored by Jodie Comer's working class Kathy Bauer character.

It doesn't take much extrapolation to see the connection between motorcycle gangs and pseudo political cults such as the MAGA movement. Racism and sexism are baked into the mindsets of societal outcasts intent of instilling fear in all those they come across.

Primary to Jeff Nichols's brilliant five-act film is the female perspective of its protagonist Kathy.

Jodie Comer gives an Oscar-worthy performance that defies all expectatio

Ms. Comer's mastery of acting craft is astounding — next level stuff. Comer's Midwest exquisite Midwest accent and range of expressive physicalizations are a delight to witness. Wow!

All young aspiring actors should study Jody Comer's superb work.

Tom Hardy and Austin Butler have their hands full keeping up with Jodie Comer.

"The Bikeriders" is an actor's actors movie by far and away.

Rated R. 114 mins.

THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

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Cannes, France — Julien Temple, the director of the notable Sex Pistols documentary "Filth and the Fury," proves the right man to make a documentary about the Clash's late frontman.

From Joe Strummer's (a.k.a. John Mellors) unsettled childhood as the son of a diplomat, and brother to a boy who committed suicide, through his teenage days spent as a bohemian squatter in London, and on to his life with the Clash (and later the Mascaleros, Temple brings Joe Strummer's life full-circle.

Martin Scorsese, Bono, Johnny Depp, John Cusack, and Mick Jones are among those interviewed to share their memories of one of the most influential singer/songwriters of the Punk movement.

The cumulative effect of this great documentary is to give viewers a strong sense of Strummer's uncompromising humanitarian ideals, his warm personality, and his musically adroit everyman vision of civilization. 

You'll laugh, you'll cheer, you'll shed a tear, and perhaps wonder where the next Joe Strummer will come from. You don't have to be a fan of Punk Rock, or even The Clash, to take away deeply held personal values that can inspire the viewer to make adjustments in his or her daily life. 

Indeed, "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" is intellectually satisfying as it is entertaining. Cheers Joe. 

This is the shit.

Not Rated. 125 mins.