Bill Plympton's CHEATIN'

Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

This is the first time in a long time that I turned to myself after watching the movie and asked, “What did I just see?”

I’m somewhat familiar with Plympton’s animated work (e.g., see Mutant Aliens) and approached watching this film via my public library’s amazing Kanopy streaming service with some trepidation.

While the art and animation style are recognizable from Plympton’s past work, the level of humor, creativity, originality, grotesqueness, and rudeness have been amped up by at least an order of magnitude. I found myself several times being absolutely amazed at the cleverness and originality of the images and humor, even though the overall story line is, to put it mildly, silly and absurd. (Man and woman meet at carnival, fall in love, get married, man has affair, woman seeks revenge…).

The visual execution of the story in Plympton’s hands is anything but trite. Objects come to life, bodies are twisted into bizarre shape, plot twists go off in absurd and wild directions, and the frequent sex scenes are anything but erotic.

The overall impact is highly entertaining especially if you are attracted to weird and quirky animation. Recommended.

Review copyright (c) 2018 by Dennis D. McDonald