Rating: 2.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2024 | 49/52 | Carsploitation
Inflation, shortages, unemployment, crime wave. Government invokes emergency powers
The streets are on fire, trash and debris clinging to every gust of wind. Jimmy takes a jog through the red-glowing industrial wasteland of Syndey. He makes it back to the safety of his home. His brother, Frank, gives him a lift down to the takeaway. Frank drives a tow truck—one of many that follows police calls to lay claim to cars. He also has to fight off roving gangs who also try to lay claim to the cars. Jimmy wants to do what Frank does, but everyone tells Jimmy that he’s too skinny and too weak to do the work.
Jimmy takes Frank’s red 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertable to pick up his girlfriend, Carmen. They go to the local Star Drive-In to do, well, what teens do when they go to the drive-in. While they’re fucking, the car drops beneath them—someone has stolen their wheels. Jimmy runs outside to find the police loading the wheels into the back of their truck.
Jimmy goes to the entrance to file a complaint, but the owner says he must camp there for the night. When he wakes up in the morning, he finds that most of the cars from the previous evening are still parked there, some converted into hovels. They go back to the entrance to file a report. The owner gives them meal tickets and tells them they’re stuck until the government decides what to do with them.
Aussie punks trapped in a drive-in converted into an internment camp is a fun idea. It’s youth trapped in a prison without a future — a metaphor not unlike Mark Fischer’s hauntology. Add to it the slow creep of Nazi punks looking to take over, and you have some outright cultural relevance.
There’s a moment in the movie where police drop off hundreds of Asian people, and the camp loses it, demanding the police remove them. Carmen is worried that they’ll rape her. Jimmy tries to help her understand that Asian people are prisoners, just like them.
All the pieces are in place for something compelling. But the movie does almost nothing with the setup it’s given us. It mentions these ideas without exploring them with any curiosity. Ultimately, the film suggests that collective action is only viable to make things worse and that it takes a Rambo to save himself.
The music rules. The movie looks best at night, full of fire and neon. The Jesus statue with the neon halo is sick. For a few minutes, we even get some killer car stunts. Still, the movie left me wanting more from the ideas it introduced.