Amy Heckerling’s Vamps is awash in pop-cultural, cinematic, and historical references.
Bill Plympton’s world of fantasy is right on target with that of fellow shock animator Don Hertzfeldt.
The film revisits an Alphabet City virtually unseen since Paul Morrissey’s vibrant gangland dramedy Mixed Blood.
The film ultimately chooses to embrace, rather than transcend via zany bawdiness, the schmaltzy genre within which it’s operating.