Paper Spiders

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1:50

Paper Spiders

PG

2021

1h 50m

Drama

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

42 Reviews

91%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Dawn (Lili Taylor) recently lost her husband and experiences growing anxiety as her daughter Melanie (Stefania Owen) 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. 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.

Critics Consensus

A coming-of-age drama that thoughtfully handles hard-hitting themes, Paper Spiders is anchored by heartbreaking performances from its leads.

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Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

05/27/2021

3.5/4

The screenplay from Natalie Shampanier is astute and purposeful. "Paper Spiders" doesn't put a happy face on any of this, but it does instill hope and understanding.

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Guy Lodge

Variety

05/25/2021

If the film's flirtations with full-tilt melodrama occasionally strain credibility, a pair of intuitive, thoughtfully inhabited performances pull proceedings back from the edge every time.

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Katie Walsh

Los Angeles Times

05/07/2021

Personal experience brings a rare honesty and authenticity to this film about mental illness.

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Ezequiel Boetti

Otroscines.com

05/12/2022

3/5

A film that avoids at all cost to fall into cheesiness. [Full review in Spanish]

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Jackie K. Cooper

jackiekcooper.com

12/20/2021

6/10

Outstanding acting and a script that takes a sober look at mental illness.

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Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

11/01/2021

Drawing upon personal experiences, Paper Spiders benefits from Lili Taylor and Stefania LaVie Owen's performances.

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Terra T

@RT38354584 02/14/2025

Paper Spiders gave me chills all around. It's hard to pull off these kinds of movies but this definitely did it. A truly great movie!

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Peter W

@RT73789474 10/07/2024

I stumbled across this movie and it is now in my top 10 list of favorites. It is undeniably powerful, heartbreaking, unforgettable, and overall just so well crafted.

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Tory C

@RT82742515 07/10/2024

Paper Spiders is an incredibly powerful story, and is handled extremely realistically. It’s probably the best movie I watched this year. If anyone has experience with a friend or family member with mental illness, they would certainly be able to relate to the main character’s heartbreaking journey. 10/10

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Amelia B

@RT65825096 05/06/2024

This movie had me in tears! Love it! Heartfelt and raw.

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Kevin L

@Lakeman 09/10/2023

Stefania Owen is very good here. Lily Taylor was in and out with the melodrama for me. 3 stars

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Daniel G

@DanielGodoy 01/18/2023

A bit too melodramatic and the secondary characters were really quite secondary (some faces weren't even shown, like the maid Maria's at Daniel's house), yet shone light on a complicated and very frustrating mental condition, which is that of persecutory paranoia, and how it disrupts the lives of all involved more closely. I was going to rate slightly less (3,5), but I was influenced by the critics' 100% on RT.

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Inon Shampanier

Director

Lili Taylor

Dawn

Stefania Owen

Melanie

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Synopsis

Dawn (Lili Taylor) recently lost her husband and experiences growing anxiety as her daughter Melanie (Stefania Owen) 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. 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.

Director: Inon Shampanier
Producer: Ash Christian, Anne Clements
Screenwriter: Natalie Shampanier
Distributor: Entertainment Squad
Production Co: Cranium Entertainment, Idiot Savant Pictures
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 7, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2021
Runtime: 1h 50m