Tank Girl

(Suggested by… well, everyone, pretty much, but especially James Hunt)

Quite simply an underrated gem. Talalay’s adaption of Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl comics, something of a youth-subculture phenomenon of the time, has stood up to the tests of time better than a lot of films of that era.

Honestly, Tank Girl is still a joy. Featuring a bravura performance from Lori Petty and a supporting cast that includes Malcolm McDowell and Ice-T, it’s become a much-loved cult offering.

Cinematic Universe’s James Hunt says of Tank Girl:

“Although critically lambasted at the box office on its 1995 release, time is being increasingly kind to Tank Girl. Not only has it managed to find a cult audience that can see past the obvious production woes, it’s also receiving a re-evaluation as a new wave of female-fronted comic book adaptations comes to the fore.

“When you rewatch Tank Girl – as we recently did for the Cinematic Universe podcast – it’s clear that given the right support from her studio, Talalay’s vision of the film as a riot grrl feminist action movie could’ve been a huge hit. Upsettingly, the reason it failed might be that she was so far ahead of her time that no-one trusted what she was doing.

“That’s not to say the film itself isn’t flawed, because it did get released barely-finished, with hastily-animated sequences papering over the story cracks where critical scenes had been left unshot. But Talalay’s direction and concept for the film was a good one. If she’d had a little more clout and experience, or her studio a little more faith, we’d be talking about the great film Tank Girl was rather than the one it could’ve been.”

You can hear the Cinematic Universe crew talk at length about Tank Girl here.