Small Engine Repair - Movie Reviews (2024)

The film’s best quality is the character work by its three leads, who embrace the qualities of their types for comedic effect, and transcend them for dramatic effect.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2022

A gem on many different levels.

Full Review | Jan 27, 2022

...a striking debut for an exceedingly promising new filmmaker.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 17, 2021

At first glance, one may find John Pollono's characters drawn in broad strokes, but reserve judgment because layers will be revealed, subtly and perceptively, as the bigger picture on societal roles, class struggle and modern technology emerges.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 22, 2021

Needed a greater story.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Oct 18, 2021

Like a muscle car firing on all cylinders, Small Engine Repair is a film astounding in craft and performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2021

A great setting and a powerful message are submerged in facial hair and mumbled lines.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 5, 2021

Small Engine Repair may seem like a movie of simple minds but it's actually just an honest movie with a big bleeding heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 5, 2021

None of these themes are fleshed out enough to compensate for flashbacks of variable power and an ending that seems contrived to take some of the sting out of the meanness that precedes it.

Full Review | Oct 1, 2021

Small Engine Repair isn't so much a movie as it is several movies, often working at cross purposes.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 1, 2021

[It] takes a very sharp, dark, and unexpected turn in the last third of the film. What saves Small Engine Repair from being an unremarkable depiction of machismo is a sinister plot twist that walks a fine line between absurd and realistic.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2021

Pollono's movie has enough verve and arresting moments to keep it lingering in your head after it ends, but it's disappointing second half leaves you feeling a little empty and bereft of any strong point of view.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2021

Pollono's ease at establishing the rapport of these characters is the key to setting up decisions that would have been far more implausible in lesser works. Bernthal and Whigham do some of their best work in one of the year's real surprises.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 24, 2021

...Small Engine Repair is a bit uneven in its plotting but is consistently engrossing in its execution.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2021

Pollono's film directorial debut is solid -- memorable, unsettling, and admirably hot, written, and acted -- but it's hard to recommend.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 21, 2021

Pollono hits a towering home run with his pack of deeply flawed, but easy to love characters (as portrayed by the stellar cast), and a plot that ratchets up the entertainment factor the deeper down the rabbit hole it goes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 17, 2021

And it's in the way that Small Engine Repair leads you to its true intention, which you don't realize until you are neck deep in it, that reveals its magical qualities.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 17, 2021

John Pollono's big-screen adaptation of his 2013 off-Broadway play is not only provocative, but should resonate with area folk -- it's a local take on class and regional tradition.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2021

The award-winning play smoothly transitions to the big screen with three-dimensional characters, plenty of tension, and a powerful final act.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 17, 2021

The screenplay has an excess of time jumps and tough-guy rants, but it also offers a biting meditation on American manhood.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 16, 2021