Spun

Spun is the tale of a group of methamphetamine addicted low lifes who turn each others lives upside down. Jason Schwartzman plays Ross in the film and gets caught up in a small mess when he goes over to Spider Mike’s (John Leguizamo) to “score some”. When he arrives he meets Nikki (Brittany Murphy), a vibrant young beautiful stripper whose boyfriend is the Cook (Mickey Rourke). The story goes through lighting fast decisions and hard hitting situations.

To be Spun is to say someone is spun out on the drug. From my understanding of it a user can go for 2 weeks, awake, without spinning out. However, in this film everyone spins out. To give an idea of what it’s like take Requiem for a Dream, throw in crystal meth and a green dog. The performances are A1, the look and feel of the actors however is quite grimey. It was weird to see Mena Suvari who plays Cookie, Spider Mikes girlfriend, dirty and bug eyed. In conclusion this group creates the perfect set of dope heads and successfully pulls off selling this in the film. Guest appearances include Deborah Harry (Blondie!) as Ross’ apartment neighbor who’s a lesbian. This is a great film for artsy types. The Swedish director, Jonas Åkerlund, ('The Prodigy-Smack my Bitch Up' video among others) uses excellent direction techniques in an attempt to show the audience the effects of the powerful amphetamine on the human body, with scenes often speeded up and often fast changes. The method works magnificently and combined with the realistic sound effects as the drug is taken one can almost feel the 'hit'. Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins and more recently Zwan, has selected all the songs for the soundtrack, including a few of his own tracks as well such as the epic 'Always'. Due to the director’s roots, which lie in the Swedish Black Metal Scene, there are also references to Black and Death Metal in the film. Although the story line may seem to be a 'hard hitting' issue of drug misuse and addiction there is also a large element of black humour with this film, despite the often serious and at times upsetting undertone.