''Spare Me'' is a 1992 film directed by Matthew Harrison and starring Lawton Paseka and

Christie MacFadyen Christie MacFadyen is a Canadian actress best known for appearing in the film '' The Top of His Head''.Marc Horton, "Mystery-love story makes for obscure but rewarding film". ''Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper publ ...

. Harrison's feature film directorial debut, the 16mm feature was made for less than $80,000 US and won awards at the

Rome Film Festival International Rome Film Fest is a film festival that takes place in Rome during the month of October. The name in Italian is Festa del Cinema di Roma. From 2022, the festival was officially recognized as a competitive festival by the Internation ...

New Orleans Film Festival The New Orleans Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the nonprofit organization New Orleans Film Society, a film society founded in 1989. The festival has been held since the society's inception. The festival takes place in mid-O ...

, Long Island Film Festival and others. Harrison used the cash award from a prize at the

Avignon Film Festival {{unreferenced, date=November 2021 The Avignon Film Festival (created 1984), also known as the Avignon/New York Film Festival or Rencontres Cinématographiques Franco-Américain d'Avignon, took place every year in Avignon, France along with a twin ...

to make his second feature, the

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

Jury Prize winning ''

Rhythm Thief ''Rhythm Thief'' is a 1994 independent drama film directed by Matthew Harrison. The standard 16mm black-and-white feature was made for US$11,000 and was awarded a Special Jury Recognition for Directing at the Sundance Film Festival. It was g ...

''.

Plot

This film is the story of Theo (Lawton Paseka), the "Bad Boy of Bowling", suspended from the pro-tour for bashing an opponent in the head on national TV. Desperate to circumvent the 100-year

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

and get back into the game, Theo seeks out his estranged father Buzz, a man of legendary power in the bowling world - a man he has never met. But Buzz has turned to the dark side of the sport and runs an illegal dwarf bowling operation with his nefarious partner Miles Kastle. "And nobody sticks a finger into a bowling ball in this town without Miles Kastle knowing about it." Kastle's pyromaniac daughter Sheila (

) has the hots for Theo. Her psychotic brother Junior has just broken out of a mental institution and wants to murder Buzz. Kastle offers to get Theo back in the pins - for a price, and Theo finds himself faced with one of the impossible 7-10 splits of life.

Cast

*Lawton Paseka as Theo Skinner *

as Sheila Kastle *Mark Alfred as Buzz Fazeli *Sunny Weil as Millie Fazeli *Richard W. Sears Jr. as Miles Kastle *Bill Christ as Junior *Christopher Cooke as Sid *Sean Hagerty as Breeze

Festivals and critical reception

Candice Russell, writing for the Sun-Sentinel at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, called ''Spare Me'' “a warped version of ''

Rebel Without a Cause ''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age melodrama film, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen and William Hopper. It is also the film debut of ...

''.” At the XXXVI Mostra Internazionale Del Film D’Autore San Remo in Italy, film critic David Rooney, writing for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', made note of the film's "reckless energy and charismatic leads." and Fausto Serra wrote "

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

marks a great starting point for the future of its author." Todd Anthony, reviewing the picture for the ''

Miami New Times The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami metropolitan area, and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District. Overview It was acquired ...

'' at the South Beach Film Festival, highlighted ''Spare Me'' as a "flat-out winner." ''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

'' labeled the film “The quintessential saga of a rebel and his ball.""Spare Me", ''

'', April 15, 1994 The film was also programmed at festivals both in the US and overseas including

Boston Film Festival Boston Film Festival (BFF) is an annual film festival held in Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It has been held annually since 1984, usually in early September. The Boston Film Festival premiered such notable films as '' The Last Kiss'' ...

, Central Florida Film Festival, ExGround Festival,

Florida Film Festival The Florida Film Festival, produced by Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida, is an annual international film festival. Overview The Festival includes narrative and documentary features and shorts, animation, midnight movies, and educational fo ...

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it t ...

Hamptons International Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October ...

, Long Island Film Festival, Filmfest Oldenburg,

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival (), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South Ame ...

Festroia International Film Festival The Tróia International Film Festival, commonly referred to as Festroia (), was an annual international film festival in Portugal held from 1985 to 2014. Held in the town of Setúbal and named after the nearby Tróia Peninsula where the festival ...

, Welsh Film Festival, and Women in Film Festival, Los Angeles. ''Spare Me'' was screened at

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

, Cinemac,

Cinémathèque Française A cinematheque is an archive of films and film-related objects with an exhibition venue. Similarly to a book library (bibliothèque in French), a cinematheque is responsible for preserving and making available to the public film heritage. Typically ...

Coolidge Corner Theatre Coolidge Corner Theatre is a nonprofit, independent cinema and community cultural center in the Coolidge Corner section of Brookline, Massachusetts, specializing in international, documentary, animated, and independent film selections, series, cla ...

Deutsche Kinemathek Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen Berlin (English: "German Cinematheque – Museum of Film and Television Berlin") is a major German film archive and film museum located in Berlin, Germany. Located at Potsdamer Platz sinc ...

Harvard Film Archive The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of film, the HFA houses a c ...

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, IFP Market,

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

Kino Arsenal The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

at the in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Millennium Film Workshop,

Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and film archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director ...

, Projected Images of Hudson County, Putnam Screening Room and the Shooting Gallery in New York City. The film was licensed on video in the US and overseas.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 108200, Spare Me American independent films American drama films 1994 comedy films Films about dysfunctional families 1994 films 1994 directorial debut films Films shot in 16 mm film 1990s English-language films 1990s American films