Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Repo! The Genetic Opera--all plastic surgery, all the time

Okay, much to my boy's chagrin, I finally succeeded in dragging him to see Darren Lynn Bousman's self-described "Rocky Horror-meets-Bladerunner rock opera," which just now made it out to one indie theater in Tucson. Make no mistake, I knew the film was gonna be crappy, but I had fairly high hopes that it would be so very tasteless that it might be kind of awesome in a Trader Joe's frozen mini-taco kind of way. The verdict: Yeah, it's retarded (though, I guess not completely without merit), but from a socio-beauty perspective, it's a somewhat deft commentary on plastic surgery's role in our society now and in the future.

Maybe that's reading into it too much. Shya thought it was more of a showcase for Paris Hilton to wear slutty outfits. (It was, at times.) And yeah, they ripped Bladerunner and Rocky Horror so hard. But there was something rawther astute in its concept of the near dystopic future, where cosmetic surgery will become so de rigueur that designing your own facade will be more of a societal requirement than an election. For example, in the film, an advertisement for the all-pervasive organ-replacement and surgery corporate monolith Gene Co. features a campy narrator promising a new bone-finishing technique that will, "make your X-Rays look more attractive!" In fact, Paris, in perhaps her best--or most fitting--acting turn ever, plays a pain killer-addled plastic surgery addict who ends up marring her pretty little face in her unscrupulous attempts to continuously chisel her image. Kind of like Lisa Rinna.

Did anyone else actually see this atrocity!? So curious to get some other opinions...

3 comments:

  1. I tried to get nine different people in one night to go see this movie with me and no one would! I gave up and decided to go see it by myself the next night.
    And it was no longer playing.
    GAAAGAGAHHHGHHGGGG

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  2. we HAVE to watch it together when i'm in new york next week. (the more i think about it, the more i love it.) can we find it on dvd somewhere!?

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  3. Great article! Thank you for putting it together. Potential patients will be better served going with a service like The Patients Advantage (www.ThePatientsAdvantage.com). It's a great way to find the best surgeons and it does not cost anything. I found them when searching for plastic surgeons. Check them out.

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