Spare Me is a 1992 "bowling noir" film that, as one film reviewer wrote, "twists conventions of the Western and thriller genres within its parallel universe of bowling monomania." Matthew Harrison

Matthew Harrison

Matthew Harrison is an American television and film director, producer and writer. He first came to prominence when his feature film Rhythm Thief was awarded Special Jury Recognition for Directing at the Sundance Film Festival. His first studio feature Kicked in the Head was Executive Produced by...

's feature film directorial debut, the 16mm feature was made for less than $80,000 US and won awards at the Rome Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival

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-October. The festival, nicknamed "Cannes on the...

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

Avignon Film Festival

Avignon Film Festival is also known as the Rencontres Cinématographiques Franco-Américain d'Avignon. The festival used to be called the French/American Film Workshop.The festival took place in Avignon, France every year and was devoted to promoting Film...

 to make his second feature, the Sundance

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 Jury Prize winning Rhythm Thief.

Plot

This film is the story of Theo (Lawton Paseka), the "Bad Boy of Bowling", suspended from the pro-tour

PBA World Championship

The PBA World Championship is one of the four major PBA bowling events. Prior to 2002, the tournament was called the PBA National Championship. The PBA National Championship was first contested in 1960, then called the First Annual National Championship...

 for bashing an opponent in the head on national TV. Desperate to circumvent the 100-year suspension

United States Bowling Congress

The United States Bowling Congress is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress, Women's International Bowling Congress, Young American Bowling Alliance, and USA Bowling...

 and get back into the game, Theo seeks out his estranged father Buzz, a man of legendary power in the bowling world

Bowling

Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...

 - a man he has never met.

But Buzz has turned to the dark side of the sport and runs an illegal dwarf bowling

Dwarf tossing

Dwarf tossing is a bar attraction in which dwarfs wearing special padded clothing or Velcro costumes are thrown onto mattresses or at Velcro-coated walls. Participants compete to throw the dwarf the farthest...

 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 (Christie MacFadyen

Christie MacFadyen

Christie MacFadyen is a Canadian actress best known for appearing in the film The Top of His Head.-Selected filmography:* Good Fences * Left Behind II: Tribulation Force * Ararat * Too Much Sex...

) 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
• Christie MacFadyen
  Christie MacFadyen
  Christie MacFadyen is a Canadian actress best known for appearing in the film The Top of His Head.-Selected filmography:* Good Fences * Left Behind II: Tribulation Force * Ararat * Too Much Sex...
  
   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 Festivalhttp://www.fliff.com/,, called Spare Me “a warped version of Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...

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

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, made note of the film's "reckless energy and charismatic leads." and Fausto Serra wrote "(the film) marks a great starting point for the future of its author." Todd Anthony, reviewing the picture for the Miami New Times

Miami New Times

The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...

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

Film Threat

Film Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...

 labeled the film “The quintessential saga of a rebel and his ball."

The film was also programmed at festivals both in the US and overseas including Boston Film Festival

Boston Film Festival

Boston Film Festival 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....

, Central Florida Film Festival http://www.centralfloridafilmfestival.com/, ExGround Festival http://www.exground.com/, Florida Film Festival

Florida Film Festival

The Florida Film Festival, produced by Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida, is an annual international film festival. Showcasing the best American independent and foreign films, the festival has become one of the most respected regional film events in the United States.-Overview:The Festival...

, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival http://www.fliff.com/, Hamptons International Film Festival

Hamptons International Film Festival

Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to provide a forum for independent filmmakers from around the world to express their vision. The Festival is traditionally held for five days in mid-October in theatre venues from Montauk to Southampton and attracts roughly 15,000 visitors annually...

, Long Island Film Festival http://www.lifilm.org/, Filmfest Oldenburg

Filmfest Oldenburg

Situated in Northwest Germany the Oldenburg International Film Festival covers since 1994 the international movie scene in all of its aspects. This open minded approach leads to an inspiring mix of great premieres, surprising discoveries and original independent productions...

, São Paulo International Film Festival

São Paulo International Film Festival

The São Paulo International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in São Paulo, Brazil since 1976. In 2004 Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was a member of the jury.-International Jury Award:*2001: The New Country ...

, Festroia International Film Festival

Festroia International Film Festival

The Festróia Festival Internacional de Cinema de Tróia is an annual film festival that takes place in Setúbal, Portugal since 1985.The festival's competitive section is open to films from countries producing less than 30 features per year...

, Welsh Film Festival and Women in Film Festival, Los Angeles http://www.wif.org/.

Spare Me was screened at Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives

__notoc__Anthology Film Archives is a film archive and theater located at 32 Second Avenue on the corner of East Second Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City devoted to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. It is the only non-profit organization of its...

, Cinemac http://www.the-mac.org.html, Cinémathèque Française

Cinémathèque Française

The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...

, Coolidge Corner Theatre

Coolidge Corner Theatre

Coolidge Corner Theatre, a cinema in the Coolidge Corner section of Brookline, Massachusetts, is the "only operating not-for-profit Art Deco theatre in the Boston area and is one of the top ten arthouse film exhibition theaters in the county." Among recipients of this venue's annual Coolidge Award...

, Deutsche Kinemathek

Deutsche Kinemathek

Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen is a major German film archive, based in Berlin. Until the opening of a permanent display on television in the Filmmuseum Berlin on 1 June 2006, it was known as the Deutsche Kinemathek....

, Harvard Film Archive

Harvard Film Archive

The Harvard Film Archive is a film archive devoted to cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It maintains a collection of over 9000 films and related documents, and regularly screens films in its 210 seat theater...

, Hirshhorn Museum

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

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

, IFP Market, Kansas State University

Kansas State University

Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

, Kino Arsenal Berlin, Millennium Film Workshop http://www.millenniumfilm.org.html, Pacific Film Archive, Projected Images of Hudson County, Putnam Screening Room

Keene State College

Keene State College is a liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is a member of the University System of New Hampshire and of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges....

and the Shooting Gallery in New York City. The film was licensed on video in the US and overseas.