Cinematic Releases: Small Engine Repair (2021) - Reviewed

Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Playwright and frequent stage theater actor John Pollono’s long awaited cinematic adaptation of his hit 2011 play Small Engine Repair comes to the silver screen after a long still-ongoing battle with COVID-19.  Originally produced and directed in 2019, the film like many others faced uphill distribution battles with the ongoing pandemic before quietly released in theaters almost two years later with little to no promotion.  Save for a Facebook video advert, this small-town American drama/thriller starring Jon Bernthal, Pollono and Shea Whigham promised one of my favorite subgenres that doesn’t get enough love or treatment in the movies: the chamber piece.
 
Set in Manchester, New Hampsire, the film zeroes in on a local auto shop run by three characters: divorced single father Frank (John Pollono), young hotshot Terrance (Jon Bernthal) and awkward introspective Packie (Shea Whigham).  After a bitter falling out after a drunken barfight, in an effort to make up Frank calls his two coworker buddies in for a night of boozing, barbeque and football on a swanky new television he just bought.  Halfway into evening a young fraternity brother named Chad (Spencer House) joins the party in what appears to be a drug deal, not knowing Frank holds far darker intentions for Chad and his two comrades that fateful night.
 
A microbudget character-driven ensemble dramedy that starts to veer into the direction of a hard-boiled chamber thriller, Small Engine Repair (not to be confused with the 2006 Irish film of the same name) is a solid small-town American picture with many startling turns and surprises up its sleeve while also expanding upon the world established by the play.  For instance, the film adds in female characters integral to the central narrative this time around and some debatable plot developments but overall retains the central critique of crass male characters engaged in a complex morality tale that goes deeper than anyone stepping into the story initially realized. 

Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

 
For a first-time director it is modestly staged, photographed in widescreen and shot on location.  Pollono understands the dramatic stage very well and himself is a strong screen presence as the film’s frightening “hero”.  Bernthal who co-produced the picture is on fire as the cocky Terrance and Whigham makes Packie into a frail figure with misdirected anger but nevertheless love for his comrades.  Prominently driven by the play’s acerbic, foul-mouthed racist, homophobic and misogynistic dialogue spoken by the main characters, we’re drawn into a world of beer glass clinking, shouting, fierce criticism of one another and hints of violence just simmering beneath the surface.
 
Visually the film captures the small-town New Hampshire setting very well thanks to Matt Mitchell’s panoramic cinematography.  It also boasts a warm homegrown score by Kathryn & Kim Allen Kluge who excellently reflect the ever-shifting tonal ranges of the play which goes from calm to white knuckle terror seemingly at the snap of a finger.  Mostly though the film is reliant on the rapid-fire snappy dialogue shot back and forth between the three central actors who effectively create a distinctly American thriller with a violent edge just lurking underneath spoken of the same breath as Jeremy Saulnier or S. Craig Zahler.

Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

 
An occasionally rough ride on the eyes and ears with vulgar language that would make the likes of David Mamet or Quentin Tarantino blush, Small Engine Repair is the kind of film that works best going into with an open mind.  A bit like Richard Linklater’s Tape in how it essentially boils down to three main characters with a difficult topic at the epicenter of the piece, John Pollono’s stage-to-screen journey is a surprising and welcome addition to the subgenre of increasingly intensifying chamber pieces about very real small-town American characters which I for one hope to see more from. 

--Andrew Kotwicki