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SPUN Rating:  Director: Jonas Akerlund Producers: Chris Hanley, Fernando Sulichin, Timothy Wayne Peternel, Danny Vinik Writers: Will De Los Santos, Creighton Vero Director of Photography: Eric Broms Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Mena Suvari, Patrick Fugit, Peter Stomare, Mickey Rourke Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
3/10/03
One of the drawbacks to the populist medium of the Internet as it relates to film criticism is that it has given a forum for bitter movie geeks (as opposed to regular movie geeks, like us) to indiscriminately fling words of venom at various films and filmmakers, as if each and every movie is supposed to be made just to suit that particular critic's tastes. Read the above as a disclaimer if you'd like, because I derive no shred of pleasure in giving films bad reviews, but if criticism is to have any relevance whatsoever, one must call them as they see them. And what I see in the new atrocity Spun is a strong early contender for my worst film of 2003. And no, the fact that this film is being released early in the year will not save it from claiming that dishonorable distinction when 2004 rolls around -- it will have truly earned the title.
Spun is Requiem For A Dream (o.k, so maybe this is one film I do take some pleasure in bashing) re-imagined as a sitcom. It borrows the same nauseating MTV visual style of Nancy Reagan Aronofksy's feature length "Partnership For A Drug Free America" commercial, but whereas that film at least purported to be about "something" (masturbating with an Avid, I think), this film readily accepts that it's about nothing. Well, nothing, except how funny those silly little meth addicts can be. And wow are they ever a hoot in this movie. You get to see Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore) tie up a stripper on his bed, tape her mouth shut and then forget she's there for countless hours while he's running errands for a meth lab cook (Mickey Rourke) and his dumb, white trash girlfriend (Brittany Murphy). And that's not all -- who could forget basking in the delight of watching drug-addled Mena Suvari defecate in her dirt and grime infested bathroom, and then realizing there's no toilet paper to clean up with, all while her dealer boyfriend (John Leguizamo) is in the bedroom receiving phone sex and jerking off into a sock (one of the few clean items in the house; his ladyfriend's blood soaked panties apparently wouldn't do the trick). Then there's also the young junkie (Patrick Fugit) that sits around playing video games all day and lives with his 400+ pound mom, who likes to hang out practically naked in the house. Director Jonas Akerlund wants to make sure we understand just how fat and unclothed this woman is, treating us to the majestic vision of her nude obesity on a few occasions.
Music video director -- and is it ever obvious -- Akerlund throws up (those last two words were chosen carefully) an overload of both disgusting and trying-to-be-funny images in a fashion that may have been deemed "cutting edge" a few decades ago. If any shot in this film actually lasts for more than 5 seconds, I didn't see it, and Akerlund joins the long list of directors who are apparently allergic to composition. In all fairness, the film isn't as mindlessly episodic as the previous paragraph would indicate (but it's pretty close), as the story basically follows a college meth freak named Ross (Schwartzman), who becomes involved in a San Fernando Valley adventure (and you didn't think such a thing was possible) when he tries to score some drugs from Spider Mike (Leguizamo). What I described above are just some of the highlights, and other things worth noting are appearances by Deborah "Blondie" Harry, Rob "Judas Priest" Halford, Billy "Smashing Pumpkins" Corgan, Tony "American History X" Kaye, Eric "Straight-To-Video" Roberts and Ron "13 Inches" Jeremy. Yup, the gang's all here.
I described the film as a sitcom earlier, and the script does probably contain one attempted joke per page and even has a "teaser" scene prior to the opening credit roll. There are also sequences lifted directly from Requiem (now that's a good source of inspiration), and so what you have is an unoriginal, slapped together, unfunny comedy about pathetic and, ultimately, boring characters, channeled through an "I'd rather be playing Playstation II" aesthetic. This film is the rare train wreck in which you actually want to look away. If I weren't in critic mode, I probably would've walked out of this film after about 15 minutes…and I just about NEVER walk out of movies. I think most of the cast members are o.k., so I can overlook this disaster on their respective résumés (but Mena, after Sonny and now this, your margin for error is just about non-existent).
Spun -- stupidity at 24 frames per second.
(A Newmarket Films release. Opens in New York on March 14, 2003. Opens in Los Angeles on March 21, 2003. Expands to more cities at later dates.)
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