Spanking the Monkey


1994 movie that doesn't even have a monkey

Rating: 10/20

Plot: Some kid with 90s hair has an internship all set up but instead has to go back home to take care of his recently-injured mother because his dad is a traveling salesman. The dog keeps distracting him while he's trying to masturbate, and he's not having much luck at all with the neighbor gal. Luckily for him, his mother's a lot of fun to hang out with.

The box, imdb.com, and the above poster make this seem like it's supposed to be a comedy. It was definitely more disturbing than funny, and the indie-film quality somehow succeeded in making it all seem much, much creepier than it was supposed to be. There's a big shocking payoff in the late-middle part of the movie, and although I liked how it was filmed--well, maybe it should have been a lot less tasteful--when it happened, it really doesn't inspire anything but shrugs. The actors all perform as if they're either really sleepy or maybe hypnotized. Scenes with main character Raymond's friends not only seemed extraneous but interrupted the storytelling. This movie seemed much longer than it actually was. It's really unfortunate that there wasn't a monkey in this movie.

2 comments:

l@rstonovich said...

"People Like Us" has a higher rating?
We agree often on female protagonists who in another, single life, we'd like to get biblical with, and also on many movies. I love this movie. Here we differ.

Shane said...

Is it funny? Maybe I didn't get it. Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations. I'd never seen this one before.

RE: this and 'People Like Us'...the only thing they have in common is that they both felt a little stale to me.