Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Turbo Kid is the type of movie where a teenager can be riding a children’s bike in one scene and a man can have his hand gruesomely sawed off in the next. This is to say that Turbo Kid is unlike any other movie out there and is as refreshingly creative as it is ultra violent. Both of those incidents are played seriously, by the way, but more impressively, both work in this post apocalyptic and disturbingly brutal universe. Imagine your darkest and most extreme super hero geek fantasy as a movie. That’s Turbo Kid.
The movie takes place in an apocalyptic wasteland that’s suffering from a drought. It’s unclear how long this land has survived without water, but it’s long enough that a crime empire revolving around turning people into water has been created (Yes, you read that correctly). We’re introduced to this world through a character only known as The Kid (Munro Chambers), an orphaned teenager who has been rummaging alone through this wasteland for a while now. Later, The Kid finds the armor of his favorite super hero, Turbo Rider, which is when the movie goes from interesting to awesome.
And what does the apocalypse look in the world of Turbo Kid? The best way to describe it is as a collection of every geeky genre out there. Villains looks like they emerged from all over the pop culture spectrum, with the main baddie resembling a corporate Mad Eyed Moody from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with what appears to be a background performer from a death metal video as his right hand man. There are also general thug bad guys, Steampunk bullies, and a cowboy figure, The Father (Francois Simard), who plays co-hero alongside The Kid.
The Kid has figured out a pretty solid system to survive in this new world, not unlike Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) in Zombieland. He’s created a strict set of rules to follow and has even drawn himself a crude map. However, all of that is thrown out the window the second he meets Apple (Laurence Leboeuf), which is when the movie really picks up.
Though Apple is played off in previews and images as the indie film-typical manic pixie dream girl, she’s far more chipper and unstable than that, and the result is amazing. Leboeuf infuses every scene she’s in with an unsettling amount of joy, confidence, and positivity. The best pop culture comparison I can make is Batman’s Harley Quinn. Sure, her smile looks pretty, but it’s never completely clear whether she’s genuinely happy to see you or if she’s about to snap. In an oddly refreshing way, Apple walks that frenzied line throughout the entire movie without ever crossing it. She really is that happy and optimistic. In that way, Apple is a reflection of what makes Turbo Kid so remarkable.
The entire universe of the film is completely reliant on established movie tropes and themes, yet it steadfastly retains its own unique tone, which swings between child-like innocence and extreme violence. If you press play on this movie, you will be seeing entrails ripped out of people in a variety of disturbingly creative ways, and you will wonder if the film’s directors and writers, François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, are mentally stable. But you’ll also be treated to a movie that makes no apologies for its atypical style and contains a central friendship and romance that is genuinely touching. If you’re looking for a bloodier and better Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with more heart, this is your movie. Just don’t make it a first date movie.
