AllMovie

Despite its status as a Crown International Pictures release, this is no typical piece of drive-in fodder. Despite its exploitable content and youth-market focus, it is very much an arthouse film. Director Bernard Hirschenson tells his story in a surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness style: he fragments the storyline with elaborate dream/fantasy sequences and flashbacks, makes effective use of some pre-MTV fast montage editing and layers the soundtrack with plenty of unusual sound effects and music to give a hallucinatory feel to the proceedings. It's also worth noting that Hirschenson also did the cinematography and his visual style is very impressive: his swirling handheld camerawork and eye for artsy imagery play a big role in creating the film's dreamlike style. The actors' performances are all rough around the edges but they give it their all and do brave, uninhibited work. Pick-Up has its flaws -- the flashbacks and dream sequences are often heavy-handed and the surreal finale is rather convoluted -- but the results are still unique and intriguing, even when they stray off the mark. To sum up, Pick-Up is an interesting bit of experimental cinema disguised as a drive-in programmer. It will baffle those expecting a typical sexploitation outing but those who appreciate avant-garde filmmaking will be intrigued by its otherworldly sense of style.