Director Jordan Rosenbloom’s “The Spinning Man” is what I’d call “The Conversation” if it were set in the post apocalypse. It spotlights the less sensational side that’s never explored in post apocalypse fiction, and it’s the paranoia that comes from surviving and surviving in a world where resources are dwindling fast.
Travis Mitchell stars as Stan the Spinning Man, a lone survivor in his small house who spends his days broadcasting his own radio show amidst a post apocalyptic wasteland. When he’s not doing that, he looks for other activities which include fighting off roaches and eating nothing but clam chowder. One day a new voice pops up on Stan’s radio who is anxious to meet him, but Stan isn’t too sure he can trust him. Eventually the two begin to clash as Stan’s more reserved nature is interrupted by the voice’s aggression and eagerness to meet him.
What’s worse is he seems to have knowledge of what Stan has been doing in his house. Who is this voice? Are Sam’s mental faculties deteriorating? Did Stan make up a rival in his head? Is Stan really as healthy as he thinks he is? And if the voice is a real person can they be trusted? Can anyone be trusted? Why does the voice seem to know what Stan is eating to stay alive? “The Spinning Man” props up a lot of questions for the viewer, but also builds a healthy ambiguity that will leave us interpreting much of what we’ve seen.
The shifts between sleep and dreams also leave a lot of what we’re seeing absolutely fuzzy, as we can never really be sure what Stan is imagining or experiencing in reality. There’s not a lot told about what the world is Stan is living in, only that it’s definitely not safe outside, and that Stan is gambling on meeting this person. They could be the companionship that he needs, or they could be his worst nightmare. “The Spinning Man” is a thought provoking and creepy tale about the end of the world and isolation, and one that definitely taps in to themes we don’t often see in this kind of fiction.
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