Spanking The Monkey cover art

Spanking The Monkey Details

1994 Certificate 18
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 2194 members

One of America's most acclaimed contemporary screenwriters and directors, David O. Russell made his feature film debut in 1994 with the black comedy Spanking The Monkey, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and caused a stir with its incestuous subplot and portrayal of adolescent restlessness. The film .. Read more

Starring Jeremy Davies, Alberta Watson, Carla Gallo, Benjamin Hendrickson
Director David O. Russell
Genres Comedy

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Spanking The Monkey

One of America's most acclaimed contemporary screenwriters and directors, David O. Russell made his feature film debut in 1994 with the black comedy Spanking The Monkey, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and caused a stir with its incestuous subplot and portrayal of adolescent restlessness. The film also displays much of what has become Russell's trademark idiosyncratic, offbeat humour, later seen in Flirting With Disaster, the iconoclastic Three Kings and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees, marking him as a special director with cult appeal.

Looking forward to a prestigious summer internship in Washington, D.C., pre-med college student Raymond (Saving Private Ryan's Jeremy Davies) has his dreams put on hold when he's forced to stay at home caring for his invalid mother (Alberta Watson, The Sweet Hereafter, TV's 24). Constantly harassed by his domineering, travelling salesman father, Raymond struggles to deal with his mother's bed-ridden anxieties and his first, stumbling attempts to romance the naive girl next door.

Starring Jeremy Davies, Alberta Watson, Carla Gallo, Benjamin Hendrickson
Director David O. Russell
Studio AXIOM FILMS INTERNATIONAL LTD
Run time DVD: 1 hr 35 mins
Certificate Certificate 18
Genres Comedy
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 25 Jun 2007
Production year: 1994
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (5) of Spanking The Monkey

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  • A nicely matter-of-fact, sensitively performed US indie debut about a white middle-class pre-medical student lumbered... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
  • ...black, black comedy. A movie that should not be allowed to disappear

    • Empire
  • Most helpful member's review of Spanking The Monkey

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  • 21 out of 29 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Coolest Hurt

    This is certainly not a straight-ahead comedy by any means. It's a comedy in the way that, say, Happiness is a comedy. It's a great film, dark and twisted, hilarious and frightening in equal measures.

    But the best thing about this film is easily the soundtrack by the band Morphine.

      • A customer from London, England
  • Most recent members' review of Spanking The Monkey

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  • 5 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    boring

    do not hire this film boring!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • A customer from west wales
  • More like this

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Rating breakdown

2,194 Member ratings
  • 100
54
  • 90
41
  • 80
180
  • 70
230
  • 60
480
  • 50
303
  • 40
352
  • 30
148
  • 20
271
  • 10
135

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