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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
Two
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Jonas Åkerlund and Mena Suvari
commentary; Jonas Åkerlund and Creighton Vero commentary;
Deleted scenes; 'Cook Show' trailer featuring Mickey Rourke; UK
theatrical trailer; On set photography gallery; Poster competition
gallery; MTV party spy-cam; Scene access; Interactive menus.
A DRUGS drama, from the director of Prodigy’s controversial
‘Smack My Bitch Up’ video, probably tells you all you
need to know about what to expect from Spun, an intentionally
hip, but ultimately vacuous movie, about America’s methamphetamine
epidemic.
That is to say, lots of flashy visuals, designed to accentuate
the effects of speed, and plenty of rapid-fire editing, wrapped
around the story of a group of addicts on a monster three-day
run of substance abuse and self-destruction.
Primarily, there’s Jason Schwartzman’s 20-something
college drop-out, Ross, whose chance meeting with Brittany Murphy’s
dizzy stripper, while hanging out at the house of John Leguizamo’s
local drug dealer, puts him into contact with Mickey Rourke’s
Meth manufacturer, Cook, and sends him into a three-day whirlwind
of drug abuse, in which he will lose track of time, morality and
his very being.
Surrounding him are the usual group of social misfits, from Deborah
Harry’s sex-line lesbian, to Mena Suvari’s constipated
junkie, who consistently find themselves flirting with reality,
and one step away from being busted by Peter Stormare’s equally
deranged cop.
Sound like fun? It can be, especially if you’re a fan of
the Trainspotting/Requiem For A Dream school of film-making, which
attempts to be innovative, while shedding fresh light on a dark
culture.
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Taking as its starting point, the place where Trainspotting ‘didn’t
dare go’, Spun is director, Jonas Åkerlund's take on
a real-life story, told through the eyes of crystal meth freak,
William De Los Santos, which attempts to deliver a ‘super
macro close-up view of a sexually-charged street world’.
Hence, viewers are supposed to be stunned and dazzled by the
sight of former American Pie
sweetheart, Suvari, attempting to overcome her constipation, while
her amorous boyfriend (Leguizamo) masturbates into a sock, and
by Rushmore star, Schwartzman’s descent into drug-induced
hell.
But they might equally be numb to the consequences by the time
the final credits roll, given that the film which results packs
all the emotional punch of one of Åkerlund's spaced-out
characters.
Indeed, Spun is the cinematic equivalent of junk food - a guilty
pleasure, at best, but one which leaves you feeling empty pretty
soon afterwards.
And it frequently tip-toes the line between good taste and bad,
seemingly going for shock tactics in favour of everything else.
Scenes in which Schwartzman essentially kidnaps a stripper, for
sex, and then leaves her tied up at home for days on end, while
played for laughs, are actually quite disturbing, while there
are also moments when the hip young cast occasionally feel as
though they are trying to break away from established images (Suvari
is especially culpable).
In its favour, however, the movie has Mickey Rourke, who strides
through proceedings wearing the look of a man who could well have
lived the type of life depicted, and who consistently reminds
people of why he continues to be rated as such a fine actor. His
sleazy, thuggish drug supplier is a masterful turn.
As a self-billed ‘one hundred and fifty miles an hour trip
into the raging Meth-pumped heart of Amerika’, Spun just
about succeeds in realising its ambition, but it will undoubtedly
leave you feeling as ‘spun’ as its protagonists. Whether
this is a good or a bad thing is now up for you to decide before
going in.
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