SLIFF 2014 Review – CHEATIN’

CHEATIN’ screens at the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday, November 15 at 3 PM as part of the 23rd Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. Order your tickets here

To para-phrase John Melloncamp’s classic tune, here’s “A little ditty ’bout Jake and Ella”. Or to be more concise, here’s a wonderful, imaginative feature animated film from the warped pencil of cartooning master Bill Plympton. He’s the man who directed the Oscar nominated shorts “Your Face ” and “Guard Dog” and went on to full-length features like THE TUNE and I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON. Well, he’s at it again with a story of two star-crossed lovers who meet on a fateful day at the carnival’s bumper car ride. Ella is a vision  who hovers over the ground in a bright yellow flowing dress and bonnet with ribbons that leave a pink trail, her “kewpie doll’-like face, just like Belle in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, “stuck in a book”. Jake’s a tower of macho with balloon-like muscles erupting from his wiry frame and a rugged face anchored by a vaguely phallic ‘schnozzola’. They fall hard for each other, and soon they newlyweds are nestled in a cozy love nest. The honeymoon must end and Jake is back at the gas station, an old-fashioned “pump boy”. Unfortunately, the manly attendant catches the eye of a rich man’s trophy wife. When Jake rebuffs her advances, it seems the old adage about ” a woman scorned’ holds true, as she causes such a rift between the lovebirds that Jake spends more time at the “no-tell” motel than at home or work (hence the film’s title). A distraught Ella soon turn to a down-on-his-luck illusionist, “Merto the Magnificent”, and his weird “trans-soul” machine in an attempt to save their union.

Plympton’s at the zenith  of his artistic powers here, with a long-form film that captures all of the charm of his quirky shorts. This film has the same hand-crafted, all drawn by hand quality seeming like colored pencil scribbles brought magically to life. The camera always appears to be moving, with images going from extreme close-up to impossibly long, mile-high crane shots swooping in every direction. There’s still plenty of sight gags (it’s pretty much in pantomime with no spoken words other than some opera standards) and ‘gross-out’ humor on display, but this venture has more of a randy, raunchy quality like one of the old “Tijuana bible”, adult comic books. Jake’s “clients” are all outrageously proportioned, as if Tex Avery partnered with Russ Meyer. This is adult animation, close to the work Ralph Bakshi was doing 40 years ago. If you’ve grown a tad weary of the slick, CGI bouncing animals and toys, then leave the kids at home and take a walk on the wild, but still wacky, side with Bill Plympton’s CHEATIN’.