‘Spanking the Monkey’ (R)

THE REBELLIOUS '60s had "The Graduate," the yupwardly mobile '80s had "Risky Business." So far, it looks like one of the generation-defining movies of the '90s may be a cranky little not-quite-comedy called "Spanking the Monkey." This disconcerting independent film won the audience award at last year's Sundance Film Festival, and has stirred some controversy with its mother-son incest sub-theme.

Coming home from his freshman year at MIT, Ray (played by prematurely sardonic Jeremy Davies -- the kid from those "punk" Subaru ads) is looking forward to his hard-won summer job in Washington, as an intern with the Surgeon General's office. But his bright plans are hijacked by his family. Ray's dad (Benjamin Hendrickson), a hostile traveling salesman, conscripts Ray to play nurse/maid to his lonely, depressed mom (Alberta Watson), who watches medical procedures on cable TV, downing Zoloft with gin-and-tonics, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The movie takes its name from Ray's frustrated attempts at finding a few moments of private pleasure -- the dog keeps howling outside the bathroom door. His abortive attempts at a relationship with a college senior are fraught with misunderstanding. You'd have an attitude problem, too.

Isolated in this suffocating suburban silence, it doesn't escape vulnerable, yet inaccessible Ray's notice that his mother is still an attractive young woman, and the movie's tense, queasy comedy hinges on Ray's combination of embarrassment and arousal, as he performs all sorts of uncomfortably intimate services for her. This is dangerous, dissonant material, but writer/director David O. Russell, making his feature filmmaking debut, somehow pulls it off.

SPANKING THE MONKEY (R) -- At the Key. Contains nudity, simulated masturbation and adult themes.