"Wendy and Lucy" *** (out of four): Surprisingly gripping little movie about a drifter in a small Oregon town looking for her lost pooch, features Michelle Williams in a raw nerve of a performance.

If you were going to write a parody of an Independent film (yes, with a capital "I"), you might say: "the entire movie is about a girl searching for her lost dog". It sounds like one of those ponderous, self-important tales that opens in New York and L.A. for a week, is praised by Hollywood-hating critics, and then disappears into obscurity. "Wendy and Lucy" fits the bill in one way. Sure enough, the whole film is about a drifter named Wendy (Michelle Williams) stuck in a small Oregon town looking for her lost pooch, Lucy. It's also a surprisingly gripping little movie.

Read more in BigPictureBigSound...