If you want to relegate a movie to the back of my viewing queue, guaranteed, call it a “throwback”—especially an “80s throwback”. I’m still picking nostalgia-bomb shrapnel out of my scalp from aesthetically sound, zero-calorie homages like It Follows and The Lords of Salem. Fortunately, rather than coasting on the so-cheesy-it’s-bad-but-also-great vibes established by BMX movies and no-budget, post-apocalypse thrillers of the era, the French-Canadian trio behind Turbo Kid put in the hard work of writing a bona fide three-act plot, constructing inventive gore gags that invoke laughter first and revulsion second, and giving us characters not only to root for, but also remember (especially Laurence LeBoeuf’s eternal-optimist sidekick, Apple). Yes, there’s geek catnip aplenty, like our hero’s Power-Glove-esque gauntlet and the fact that Michael Ironside plays the villain, but this is a real film whose unique identity scavenges the burnt-out hull of genre movies past to build something durable.