Movie Review: Spanking the Monkey

This movie is about a young boy named Raymond, forced to take care of his mother, who has a broken leg. He was supposed to start his summer medical internship. But since his father is a traveling salesman, he's the only one who can take care of her. But he would rather be at his summer internship than take care of her. Its very difficult for him to be around her because she is so unhappy and bossy. For example, she was proofreading his essay for his summer internship. She told him he should change a certain word. She suggested a word he should use. But he thought that the word he used was fine. She got mad that he wouldn't use the word she suggested. In turn Raymond got mad because he couldn't do anything right with her. Raymond in turn meets a high school young girl, who is interested in him because he goes to MIT. They start to make out and Raymond gets a little rough. She runs to her father and tells him what happened. Her father calls Raymond's mother and tells her what happened. Raymonds's mother tells him how to touch a girl. She literally shows him. You can tell there's a sexual attraction between the two. Later on that night, Raymond and his mother have sex. The next day Raymond couldn't believe what he did. More importantly, he couldn't believe she was acting like it didn't really matter. She acted like it was normal what they just did which makes Raymond more confused. He feels so guilty and dirty that he tries to kill himself several times. He decides to run away from his confusing life. He decides to start all over.

If found this movie very interesting if you love independent weird movies. Raymond is played by the very talented and very underrated actor Jeremy Davis. Raymond's mother is played by Alberta Watson.

Three and 1/2 stars: * * * "