Movie1994·US·1h 40min

Spanking the Monkey

Name: Spanking the Monkey
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 1994-01-15T00:00:00Z
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 5.7
Cast: Jeremy Davies, David O. Russell, Alberta Watson, Benjamin Hendrickson, Carla Gallo

A gripping comedy about letting go.

Drama Comedy

5.7/ 10

83 votes

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Premiere

Jan1994

Studios

Buckeye Films Fine Line Features Swelter Films

Box office

Budget$200,000

About

Synopsis

Spanking the Monkey (1994) is the debut feature from director David O. Russell — watch online on iFILM. College student Raymond Aibelli comes home for the summer expecting a break. His father leaves on a business trip the next day, and Raymond is stuck caring full-time for his mother Susan, who is recovering from a broken leg and going nowhere fast.

The days blur into each other. Raymond hauls her to the bathroom, skips a prestigious medical internship, finds brief distraction with a neighborhood girl named Toni. Then the dynamic between mother and son quietly, uncomfortably shifts in a direction neither of them speaks out loud. Russell shot it on a shoestring and walked away from Sundance 1994 with the Audience Award — an early sign that he was drawn to exactly the situations where there is no clean way out. Watch Spanking the Monkey (1994) online on iFILM.

Cast