Movie Review: Spent

Good afternoon, Arrowheads! I recently received an opportunity to review another indie film, Spent by Christian filmmaker, Lisa Mikitarian. The film itself is a dark-humored comedy with a 1940s feel. I watched the film with my boyfriend who enjoys watching and discussing movies as much as I do. So, let’s get to the review!

Summary:

Spent centers around a mother and son–Evelyn and Lonnie Schumacher–who are living it up on the family’s funds now that their cheapskate husband/father, Herbert, is on his deathbed. All is well, until a miracle occurs on July 4th that completely cures Herbert of his cancer. Now that the funds have ran dry, how far are Evelyn and Lonnie willing to go to cover up their mistakes?

Review

I will now review the highlights and lowlights the film has to offer:

Highlights:

The Plot: I think Spent has an interesting storyline for viewers to follow. I personally have never seen a movie with this type of plot, so it was a refreshing contrast from some of the repetitive plots of Hollywood films.
The Cinematography: the picture quality of the film itself greatly surpassed that of the majority of indie films I’ve seen. The crew did an excellent job in capturing quality shots throughout the film.

Lowlights:

The Acting: Indie films often do not use seasoned actors, but I have seen a few where the acting was better than mainstream films. Unfortunately, the majority of the acting in Spent failed to make me as a viewer believe the performance. I think it was due to the lack of emotion in the deliverance; it felt like most of the lines were delivered in nonchalance, causing the audience to not empathize as well with the characters.
The Inclusion of Vintage Aspects: My boyfriend and I agree that the inclusion of vintage aspects seemed too random throughout the production. If the Schumachers solely dressed and decorated their home with vintage items, we believe it would have made more sense to the audience; however, both the Schumachers and the rest of the townspeople either dressed or decorated their homes in vintage garb in modern-day America. Sometimes the characters would be talking on rotary phones, and the next minute on iPhones. The Schumachers had a computer from possibly the late 1990s/early 2000s that had high-speed internet and no delay in loading pages. The film also went back and forth from color picture to black and white, and neither of us could figure out why the color scheme switched. I feel that if the film had focused on a sole time period–1940s–and left out the modern props, it would have made more sense.

Content Warning for Conservative Christian Viewers:

**Note: This section has no impact on my rating of the film**

If you’re a frequent reader of posts on Authoring Arrowheads, you know I’m not usually one to warn others about negative content, as I’m a firm believer that Christian media should not shelter audiences from real-life situations. Nevertheless, I feel discussing or revealing situations involving what is often perceived as “negative content” should be done so with tact. This film is intended for a general audience and contains content that some of the more conservative Christian followers of this blog may not be comfortable with, including a semi-detailed extramarital affair (Herbert’s wife makes out with a man on a clothing store floor), and men smacking women (who are not their wives) on the butt. The H word is also said a couple times, but that’s the only major cuss word I heard.

Again, this section has no weight on my overall rating of the movie, but I felt the need to clarify for my more conservative followers, as I’ve only reviewed films marketed exclusively for the Christian market on this blog before.

Conclusion:

Overall, Spent is a quirky movie that will be a great film to watch if you’re a fan of vintage movies and the dark-humored comedy of the 1940s era. Personally, my boyfriend and I agreed upon rating Spent: