Spanking the Monkey

Trailer—Spanking the Monkey

This film pulls no punches. It has the balls to show difficult subject matter, yet it can make you laugh. Most people will recognize Jeremy Davies from SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (the scared guy), but here he is worthy of an Academy award. However, don't be under the impression that this film is for everyone, it definitely is not! The incest is likely to offend those who are not familiar with the genre. But if you're in the mood for taboo-breaking themes, this is your movie.

It's always nice when Americans make thoughtful, atmospheric, and reflective films. Especially when they are black comedies, because America is home to some of the masters of the genre. Dealing with the most taboo of all subjects, this film makes you squirm in your seat even more than Thomas Vinterberg's 'Festen', and the subject is dealt with using the tact and subtlety that many Hollywood directors lack. Anybody expecting a slapstick, South Park type movie will be sorely disappointed, but fans of Todd Solondz will probably love it. Plus there is a great soundtrack by Morphine.

I really don't like the marketing of this movie. The tagline and the doesn't really tell you what's going on. 'Flirting With Disaster' was a comedy, and this is a drama. A tragedy more accurately. The movie has its laughs, but it's the anything but humorous incestuous events, that are the the core of this story. I think David O. Russell is a very gifted filmmaker and here he presents a very unreal subject in a very believable and compelling way. But if you are looking for a comedy, see "Flirting With Disaster.'

What a devilish film! I first saw this upon it's initial release, and was blown away by David O. Russell's script and direction, and the acting skills of Jeremy Davies. The film makes you cringe at every turn, but you cannot take your eyes off of it. Well acted and directed, this marked Russell as a talent to watch.

A very dark comedy, dealing with the taboo subject of incest. A wonderful sharp script and very sensitive handling of the subject matter. Well paced and with hardly a dull moment. Made for around $80,000, which made it even a more worthy project (finely executed). Will stand the test of time to; disturbing yes, yet very funny in places.

The climax it where it's at in this movie; didn't see it coming the first time I watched the film. Plenty of nice shots and solid character development. Funny and at times painful to watch, but definitely makes you think. The characters are written well and are performed admirably by the cast (with an early role for Jeremy Davies). Great movie to watch in the middle of the day, with the pacing slow relative to many movies. But it works, and it makes the payoff all the more rewarding. The interactions feel so real. This is as good as it gets for under $100,000.

This Indie film pushes the envelope with its odious subject matter; mother-son incest. Now, I don't mind when a film tackles a difficult topic, but this movie appears to embrace its subject matter not because it has a story to tell or a point to make, but only to be out there on the edge. It's intuitively obvious that the relationship between the mother and her son has to be a product of a very dysfunctional family, and the subject family is a case of middle-class dysfunction en extremis. So much so, the characters are rendered unbelievable. The director and screenwriter push way too hard to make the movie ‘edgy', and end up with a mess.

Raymond Aibelli is a promising medical student ready to begin a prestigious summer internship. But Susan, his mother, is immobilized by a broken leg, and his father Tom, a traveling salesman, makes Raymond stay home and take care of his mother, an unhappy woman. "Spanking the Monkey" is a god film, not a great film. At he time of its release, it was a box office success, grossing $1,359,736 on a $200,000 budget. And what makes it remarkable today (2017) is how it launched the career of David O. Russell, who has become something of an Academy favorite. The film, on its own merits, is alright. Nothing outstanding, not a landmark film by any means. In fact, it is very typical of the independent movie scene of the 1990s. Although Ray is clearly a success, he is trapped in a world that has him treading water... not altogether different from characters we might find in Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater.

Considering the plethora of reviews here, both good and bad, there isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said. I will add that the first half works "reasonably" well, allowing viewers to understand perhaps how such a thing as an incestuous encounter could possibly happen. But then the film derails, and derails big time. The boy blames his mother completely for what they did, and the film seems to side with him despite the fact that it had previously shown us that he was just as guilty as she in the liaison. The film gets unspeakably ugly from there. The subject of consensual incest has been addressed by film only a few times over the years, always with unsatisfactory results---perhaps this is reflective of society's uneasiness with the subject. Consensual incest is about the only "sexual more" that is never discussed (even by psychologists), even though it likely occurs in real life with more frequency than we would like to believe.