‘Spanking the Monkey’

Writer-director David O. Russell’s 1984 debut feature is a whimsical, daring black comedy about incest, and it never lets up. The matter-of-factness of Russell’s approach is harrowing--and also funny. He keeps his camera on an even keel as he dispassionately records the wayward passions of his people. Jeremy Davies (pictured) stars as an MIT freshman unhappy about having to give up a summer internship with the Surgeon General’s Office to care for his temporarily bedridden mother (Alberta Watson, also pictured) while his traveling salesman father (Benjamin Hendrickson) conveniently hits the road. What happens, along with repercussions, is presented as all-of-a-piece with the dysfunctional family’s larger human comedy. Despite an ending that’s a large letdown, the film is much more than a promising first effort (Cinemax Wednesday at 8 p.m.).