Movie review
September 10, 2021 · 102 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Small Engine Repair is a 2021 gritty crime drama adapted from John Pollono’s play, following three working-class New Hampshire friends who stage a violent trap at a repair shop to exact revenge on a privileged young man who publicly slut-shamed one friend’s daughter online, triggering her suicide attempt. The story centers on male loyalty, fatherhood, class resentment, and vigilante justice amid crude banter and escalating brutality. Recurring explorations of toxic masculinity and social media harms appear through character behavior and plot mechanics but stay subordinate to the personal thriller narrative rather than functioning as dominant messaging.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Small Engine Repair.
Woke representation / casting
Casting is entirely natural and appropriate for the working-class New Hampshire setting and characters with zero audience-visible forced diversity or identity signaling.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue consists of crude, profane, in-character banter including casual bigotry; no explicit activist, political, or ideological lectures or messaging.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative engine is personal revenge and male friendship in response to a daughter’s online victimization; masculinity and class resentment recur but remain story-serving rather than identity-politics or representation-focused.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Film depicts and shows consequences of toxic masculinity, misogynistic behavior, class privilege, and social-media harassment through raw character actions and vigilante plot, creating a noticeable cultural critique of contemporary male culture without modern activist systemic framing of patriarchy, whiteness, or capitalism.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant; original story with no legacy characters or canon alterations.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No meaningful backlash, social-media campaigns, or news coverage accusing the film of pushing woke, activist, identity-political, or left-wing messaging.
Creator track record context
Pollono has explicitly linked the film to #MeToo-era gender conversations and feminist framing of toxic masculinity in interviews, providing modest supporting context, though his overall body of work remains character-driven rather than activist-patterned.
Production
