Movie Review: Spent (2017)

Spent (2017) - USA - Comedy/Drama/Noir - Not Rated (PG)Written & Directed by Lisa MikitarianStarring Connie Lamothe, Darren Barzegar, Nick Nerangis, Madeline Mikitarian, Tony Villa, Janna Livingston, Anna Grace Padgett
Full of story and style with a mix of elements from various genres from film noir to comedy Spent becomes its own unique experience culminating in a cinematic high.
Poor Herbert. Dying of a brain tumor. His family will miss him. As a matter of fact, they can't wait to miss him. You see, Herbert has been a tightwad his whole life, but now all that penny-pinching has paid off, or will pay off to his family once he is gone and they will be able to do all those things they couldn't  while he was alive. But sometimes fate has a tendency to throw a wrench in the gears and complicate things.
In the very opening of this film I was in a timewarp. A woman is using a Compaq Portable III* computer (so jealous and in such pristine shape) while a young man prances about his room looking like it was furnished in the 80s or before, then when he is at the movie theater the movies on the narquee are relatively recent. What?
As it turns out the family has literally been living in the past. Herbert, being the penny-pincher he is has not updated their lifestyle in over 25 years and with an antique car, an analog cell phone and vintage applliances around the house the viewer is attuned to the timewarp the family must feel.
*For nitpickers, the Compaq Portable III is not a color computer nor even capable of the things it does in this film, but that's missing the point as it is present to show how long Herbert hangs onto stuff to keep from spending money.
Though the family lives an austere lifestyle, and the small town in which they live in many ways is just as atavistic as they are, there is an entrenched elegance in the film from an exquisite display of baubles of plenty to the simple charm of a little girl selling root beer on a hot summer day. And how something as seemingly innocuous as the latter becomes a plot element is part of the special chemistry of this film.
Initially I felt the pace was a little slow as the film lingers a bit on its settings but ultimately it accomplishes pulling the viewer into its world effaced of much of the familiarity of the postmodern condition. Using this technique better transitions the viewer than if they were simply thrust into it pell-mell as a fish out of water.
The art direction is full in this. This may seem a contradiction with the simplicity of the lifestyle depicted but that contradiction allows the adornments of antiquity to shine through the ascetic means of the characters. An important discovery at work in this story is not treating the bereft comforts of the protagonists lives as emptiness by focusing on that part but instead allowing the characters themselves to shine through as the important elements in a strongly character driven plot.
Mixing elements from film noir and comedy Spent unfolds a story that is both farcical and interpersonal. It is a fun and emotional roller coaster ride that is likely to have you laughing hysterically through your tears. From the beginning it may seem like it is obvious where this story is going, but that changes quickly. As I said before it is a character driven story and those characters, amazingly in only two days of story time, discover, evolve and effect the plot through their interactions in what is a funny and beautifully woven tale of family, greed, rat poison and squirrels.
There are problems in this, though very few. At times some of the acting is a little wooden, but competent enough. And a boon to the cast is the wonderful performance by Nick Nerangis who puts so much zest and feeling into every scene he occupies, and with his natural expressiveness and facial features he is a photographer's and filmmaker's dream come true. The conclusion of the film, more properly a coda, does not have the same strength as the rest of the film, but it is short and does fill in some gaps.
What Spent does accomplish though is a unique piece of cinema that lavishes in its style, wafting from color to black & white to enhance the mood, and its storytelling in allowing the characters to lead the plot, changing up the story constantly keeping it fresh. It builds to a bittersweet apogee of tears and laughs in a cinematic high of intensity as such I felt as though I was riding in a taxi being driven by Harry Chapin. And in the end its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses and what Lisa Mikitarian has accomplished as a writer and director is quite possibly the best movie I have seen all year.
My Rating: 5 Fingers; I give it a high five!
You can get Spent on Amazon Video. Watch it for free with Prime.
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