Dawn recently lost her husband and experiences growing anxiety as her daughter Melanie plans to move away for college. An argument with a hostile new neighbor aggravates Dawn's mental condition, and she begins to show signs of paranoid delusions. Determined to help her mom, Melanie attempts a series of interventions, but challenging Dawn's reality of persecution threatens to destroy their loving relationship. Melanie is forced to make the toughest of choices as she struggles ... (Full plot summary below)
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Dawn recently lost her husband and experiences growing anxiety as her daughter Melanie plans to move away for college. An argument with a hostile new neighbor aggravates Dawn's mental condition, and she begins to show signs of paranoid delusions. Determined to help her mom, Melanie attempts a series of interventions, but challenging Dawn's reality of persecution threatens to destroy their loving relationship. Melanie is forced to make the toughest of choices as she struggles to support her mother on the path toward recovery and healing. A bittersweet story about coming of age in the shadow of mental illness.
Leave your thoughts about Paper Spiders.
| Movie NationRoger MooreThe cast and filmmakers have made a very good movie about a very tough subject. and somehow have managed to never cop out once by showing us easy answers. |
| Film ThreatAlex SavelievPapers Spiders is everything you want out of a teen drama, more Lady Bird than The Fault in Our Stars. That’s not to say fans of the latter won’t respond to Shampanier’s genuine gem. Don’t let this one slip under the radar. |
| Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshTaylor plays Dawn’s slide into this mental health crisis beautifully, and with conviction, and Owen is stunning as the high-achieving, yet fragile Melanie, who seeks oblivion and solace in a risky boyfriend (Ian Nelson). |
| The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenPaper Spiders is a message film, but one that's spiked with welcome humor, and its excellent cast is led by the reliably compelling Lili Taylor as the afflicted woman, tormented and tormenting, and Stefania LaVie Owen as her smart and sensitive daughter. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeWhat begins as a wry tale of a maturing family in bittersweet flux spirals unpredictably into a study of living with extreme mental illness, as experienced by both the afflicted and their gradually alienated nearest and dearest. |
| The New York TimesTeo BugbeeIn absence of a bold visual style, the performers are tasked with providing the movie with its energy. |
| The Film StageJared MobarakFor director Inon Shampanier and co-writer Natalie Shampanier to tackle something so complex is therefore commendable whether or not Paper Spiders proves a complete success. |
| User ReviewNoraKratzerExcellent movie. I haven't been moved this way in a long time. This was an astute observation on the toll of mental illness and the hell of paranoia. My grandmother suffered from delusions and this movie truly touched my soul. |
