Spun (DVD)
Directed by: Jonas Akerlund
Written by: Will De Los Santos, Creighton Vero
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Patrick Fugit, Mickey Rourke, Mena Suvari, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo

There have been more and more “drug movies” coming out in recent years. By drug movies of course,I don’t mean simply movies about drug addicts and their life stories, but specifically movies thatattempt to give the viewer the feeling of being under the influence of a certain drug, and also try to showcase a particular subculture revolving around the drug. Movies like Trainspotting, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and Requiem For A Dream are just a few that come to mind. All of these were critically acclaimed, and all of them were quickly identified by theyouth of today as important because the movies were apparently so in tune withtheir culture. However, not every movie about drugs has been so well done, and more and moreof these movies are being released that have no real significance; they just use weird camera effectsand other cheap tricks in an attempt to gain a cult following with the raver crowd and otheryoung hipsters.

Early indications were that Spun would be one of the latter films. Director Jonas Akerlund hadpreviously only done music videos for artists like Moby and Madonna, and it seemed like one of thoseprojects big name actors only do to give some credibility backto their career. However, it was the specific actors involved that actually drew me to this movie.Although many of them are well known, they all have a nose for high quality movies and certainlydon’t need to buy themselves credibility. Their noses didn’t fail them this time around either.

Jason Schwartzman stars as Ross, a drug addict who gets hooked up with the local drug cook and ends up running odd jobs for him. Along the way he is trying to hook up with an ex-girlfriend, and well, basically just trying to score as many fixes as possible.

The drug of choice in Spun is crystal meth aka speed. As you can imagine, there are a lot of cooleffects that can be used to simulate the feeling of being on speed such as quick jarring cuts,hyper fast motion speed, and intense close ups. All of these are used to a degree, but the majority of the visual experimentaion seems to happen in the first scene. Afterwards, the movie eases up a bit in order toactually tell a story. There are still some weird trippy scenes that happen later on though, including some with strange, sexually explicit animated sequences.

Drug movies are also often very gritty and/or obscene, showing shocking and distasteful things. In thissense, Spun is at least on par with, if not a step beyond, the level of grossness found inTrainspotting and Requiem For A Dream. I have to give some of the actors credit, in particularMena Suvari and Patrick Fugit because in this movie they are actually done up too look disgustinglyunhygenic and strung out. We have the pleasure of witnessing Suvari taking a dump, complete with the”dropping of the log” if you will. Fugit has a revolting scene of his own where he is eatinga half-cooked microwave dinner in his underwear.

But despite the disturbing elements of the movie, it never quite gets to that same level ofgrim reality that Requiem For A Dream achieves. This is mainly because Spun has a really greatsense of humour to it. Some of it is, as you might expect, dark comedy. For example,somehow the concept of tying up and abandoning a naked girl for a few days becomes a sourceof comic relief, as demented as that seems. Beyond this, the many quirky characters and theirexagerrated, cartoony behaviour is always a great source of amusement. Mickey Rourke is amazing as “The Cook”, a macho tough guy who is a bit of a loser underneath it all. The two characters that really steal the show, however, are the two 70’s TV cop send-ups. Whenever they enter a scene they are so absurd and over the top that they temporarily change the whole feel of the movie… though in a way they fit with the exagerrated style of it all.

Oh, there is of course one other essential element to a classic drug flick: a great soundtrack. The music in Spun was all done by Billy Corgan who contributes a wide mixture of stuff, from songs that sound like the Smashing Pumpkins, to dreamy pop stuff that you would never guess came from the mind of Billy Corgan. He also makes a cameo in the movie as a doctor.

There are 2 DVD releases of Spun: one rated R and the other unrated. You don’t need me to tell you that you want to get the unrated version if possible; although the differences are probably minor, you really shouldn’t miss out on any of the grotesque moments as they are an important part of the movie. Both DVDs are also packed with extra stuff including deleted scenes, a music video, and two audio commentary tracks: one with the director and writer, the other with the producer and writer.

Some people claimed that Spun was directionless and emotionless, making it difficult to care for the characters. I didn’t find that to be the case. Although the final message that the movie gives isn’t much more than “drugs are bad”, it does tell a tale of loneliness as well. More importantly, Spun was original and fun and for that it definitely gets my personal seal of approval. — Sean