Paper Spiders

Filmed in Syracuse, NY, award-winning Paper Spiders is now showing June 18th at 7 pm at the MOST! This will be the last film shown in the IMAX theatre before permanent closure and renovations, set to reopen with a brand new theatre in February 2022 – don’t miss out on this final experience. Learn more about the renovations here.

Paper Spiders is a 2020 American drama film directed by Inon Shampanier, written by Natalie and Inon Shampanier, and starring Lili Taylor and Stefania LaVie Owen. It tells the story of a high school girl struggling to help her mother, whose paranoid delusions spiral out of control. It is described as “a bittersweet story about coming of age in the shadow of mental illness.

Plot: 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. Determined to help her mom, Melanie attempts a series of interventions, hoping that her guidance counselor (Michael Cyril Creighton), a private investigator (Max Casella) or even a new date (Tom Papa) may help, but to no avail. Melanie navigates her friendship with Lacy (Peyton List) and romance with the troubled Daniel (Ian Nelson) while trying to keep her mother afloat, 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.