Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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54 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wakeup Call, September 11, 2003
A wide-awakeup call, in fact. About five days worth. That's the amount of 24 hour cycles, Ross, the central character spins through in this relentless movie. Yes, this film is derivative. Shades of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (the animation sequences, especially), David Lynch's Lost Highway (a repeated shot of the dark, empty highway ahead, illuminated only by the car's headlights), D.J. Caruso's The Salton Sea (also about tweakers, with Mickey Rourke here substituting for Vincent D'Onofrio as Mr. Space Cowboy, menace 2 society, honkeytonk hairtrigger), and Darren Aranofsky's cutting-edge, Requiem for a Dream (similar downward spiralling of characters and not too dissimilar an ending). So why the five stars, you ask? Because this film, while borrowing heavily from its sources, is still entirely original and innovative. Swedish born director, Jonas Akerlund has taken his music video sensibility and "tweaked" it to an extreme, combining visual and aural sensations in entirely novel ways. The camera work must be seen to be believed. Reviewers who denigrate the script are missing the point. This movie is about the camera. This is not herky-jerky, cinema verite, hand held camera work we're talking about here. This is carefully story-boarded, minutely crafted creativity at play. There are shots that could only have occured to a director who is either as crazy as his characters are (or as drug addled) or to someone possessing something along the lines of cinematic genius. Maybe it's a combination of all these. As this is Akerlund's first foray into feature films, I guess we'll just have to wait for his next movie (Lords of Dogtown, in pre-production) to decide. Don't worry yourselves about from whom, or from what, Akerlund is borrowing. Real artists worth their salt openly acknowledge that they're only building on the works of those who have come before them. I have a sneaking suspicion that Akerlund might be an artist to reckon with in the future. BEK
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Still Spinning, April 28, 2003
What an aptly titled film. After seeing Spun I felt, well, Spun. This is a drug movie in every sense. In terms of this genre it takes it's audience where only Star Trek has taken it's Sci-Fi audiences. Drug films aren't for everyone, but it is a wild ride, to say the least. Spun depicts a day, or several days, in the life of people hopelessly addicted to Meth. We join Ross (Jason Schwartzman), Spider Mike (John Leguizamo), Cookie (Mena Suvari), Nikki (Brittany Murphy) and The Cook (Mickey Rourke, who is awesome) in a place where few people will ever go with a substance abuse problem. They mostly have no jobs, no money, and no self-respect. Their addiction consumes them and their entire lives revolve around getting high and then getting more drugs so they can get high again. Since the film basically follows them through several days of this process and the misadventures that happen along the way it relies heavily on it's performances. And these actors are amazing, they really come through. The same goes for the world director Jonas Akerlund has created for them. The actors chew the scenery all right, but it is so vile that it looks like they would want to spit it out. Also, much has been said about the editing of the film. It is true, few pictures have this many cuts, but it works for the film in ways it wouldn't work for another. It adds to the notion that these people have no attention span and no concept of time. Spun now joins the ranks of other films illustrating graphic drug use such as Requim for a Dream, Trainspotting, and Drugstore Cowboy. It isn't as good as any of these films though, because it doesn't tell us enough about the characters (like where they came from, why they are so addicted, etc). That being said, Spun is still a good movie. Perhaps this is the point. None of the characters in Spun could tell you anything about themselves. In that sense Spun does what it sets out to do. Ever wonder what its like to be up for days on Meth? Spun is your movie.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you don't understand this movie..., December 26, 2006
So, most people have never experienced anything close to the heavy drug use depicted in this film.
At first glance, Spun is exceedingly obscene and pornographic, and the editing is enough to make anyone dizzy. However, not only does it excellently depict the drug sensations, the movie has a moral as well. I fully believe that the lack of character development and plot (according to numerous critics) is intentional -- drug abuse doesn't just suddenly get a happy ending, nor does it have any essential purpose beyond the feelings of the drugs.
And in the end, that's what this movie delivers: the experience of a pointless week-long meth binge, and a glimpse at the kind of life few of us would believe exists. Imagine the events of Spun expanded into a year, many years -- people actually live this way, losing days like drops in a bucket of water, doing what they can to get the next high. Extremely important things are simply forgotten, drama explodes as the drugs twist emotions..
There are so many elements of this movie that are thought-provoking, when you get past the layers of grime and tweak editing. A great many people won't care to get past the surface, and understandably so.. You might have seen this kind of depravity in the first half of A Clockwork Orange, but never presented in such a visceral way. Beneath the surface is a silent cautionary tale -- everything from constantly blinking Fasten Seatbelts lights to Ross taking another bump as you cringe "again??" and prepare for another sensory assault..
If this film takes you nowhere, perhaps that is exactly the point.
Love the presentation, 5 stars =)
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