Neil Young’s image, circa 1982, was that of a dark, brooding, introspective rock star who couldn’t get along with Crosby, Stills or Nash, and seemed intent on alienating his fans and his record label with Kraftwerk-inspired electropop. He was certainly not perceived as someone inclined to do a 90-minute Jerry Lewis impersonation in a movie designed as a drug-addled “Wizard of Oz” — one that ends in nuclear conflagration, rather than Kansas.

Nevertheless, “Human Highway,” Mr. Young’s anarchic comedy set in a town about to blow, is all of that. With direction credited to Bernard Shakey, Mr. Young’s nom de cinema, and the actor Dean Stockwell, the rarely seen film stars Sally Kirkland, Dennis Hopper, Mr. Stockwell and the band Devo. But its centerpiece is Mr. Young as the goofball garage mechanic Lionel Switch — a homage to the toy train company that Mr. Young once co-owned — in a fully realized comedic performance.

“He’s a dork, there’s no doubt about it,” Mr. Young said of Lionel, en route to the premiere of the newest version of the film at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival. Having been scooped up curbside at the airport by his own tour bus, a mini-McMansion on wheels, the singer-songwriter dropped the sunglasses and baseball cap hiding his face and talked about a movie he’s been tinkering with as if it were an old Buick since the theatrical release that never happened.

“People thought I was a serious guy,” he said, resignedly. “I don’t know what I am; it doesn’t matter what I am. You know, my songs, some of them seem to be serious, because I write about things that people won’t talk about, as far as what’s going on in their personal lives. But it doesn’t make me serious. The people who know me best know that I’m kind of ... fun.”