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Paper Spiders (2020)

Absolute Snoooze Fest

This was recommended after watching "Any Day Now" which in every metric was a far superior movie.

A film that promises a deep dive into the complexities of mental health but ultimately fails to deliver, leaving audiences with an overwhelming sense of boredom and frustration. Directed by Inon Shampanier, the film follows Melanie, a high school senior whose mother begins to exhibit signs of paranoid delusions.

One of the film's biggest flaws is its slow pacing, which makes the already thin plot feel even more stretched out and tedious. Scenes linger on mundane details, adding little to the overall narrative and leaving viewers waiting for something, anything, to happen.

The characters in Paper Spiders are equally lackluster, with Melanie and her mother, Dawn, failing to elicit much sympathy or interest. Melanie's journey is meant to be the emotional core of the film, but her character is so underdeveloped and unremarkable that it's hard to care about her struggles.

The relationship between Melanie and Dawn is also poorly explored, with their interactions feeling forced and unnatural. The film tries to depict the complexities of their mother-daughter dynamic but falls short, leaving their relationship feeling flat and unconvincing.

Thematically, Paper Spiders attempts to explore the impact of mental illness on family dynamics, but it does so in a superficial and uninspired way. The film touches on important issues such as empathy and understanding but fails to delve deep enough to make a meaningful impact.