http://www.guidelive.com/profile/350637/?cslink=cs_movies_2_4

So it is with Spun, a movie that attempts to intimately acquaint its viewers with the highs and lows of crystal methamphetamine. But the movie is one long, endless low. Director Jonas Akerlund's relentless overkill stomps out any value the film might have as a cautionary fable. His MTV touches and lurid animated sequences are cheaply exploitative.

the "try" short film, anyone?

what does this have to do with sp or zwan?

Originally posted by Elvis The Fat Years
what does this have to do with sp or zwan?

school yourself son....

www.spunthemovie.com

Jonas Akerlund is my favourite director. He's so subtle.

Now where's that picture of Garth saying "Not!"

If I haven't even bothered to look at the Try short film, you can bet your ass I won't be seeing this movie ever

Try wasn't fun which is why I've only watched five minutes of it.

This sounds like a crazy unhinged Trainspotting kinda fucked up way, not so serious, so it should be good.

sides, bad reviews for an edgy flick are always a good sign for me.

What the Critics Say


Calling a movie "raw" doesn't pack much punch these days. But no adjective better serves [Spun]. ... Unfortunately, the script is long on shock and humor and decidedly short on depth and message. So we get characters we can laugh at, rather than feel for or connect with. Vulgarity aside, this picture's biggest defect isn't that Spun spins out of control, but that it ultimately stands still.
Read on More Reviews at EOnline.com



Another film dedicated to the idea of reproducing a druggy state of mind as acutely as possible, Spun accomplishes that aim with the welcome bonus of considerable humor. Manic, bawdy and anarchic in spirit, the feature debut of musicvid wunderkind Jonas Akerlund is limited in its appeal by its highly specific single intent, but the more hardcore portion of the crowd that supported Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream will get behind this outrageously grungy and whacked-out walk on the wild side....
Read on More Reviews at Variety.com



[Spun] is a swaggering journey into hell that conveys a chortling amusement at its own apocalyptic imagination. ... Like Requiem for a Dream, Spun blends an attitude of titillated revulsion with a hip gallows humor. ... Spun invites you to regard the spectacular squalor of its characters' lives with a smirking condescension. ... If Spun doesn't glamorize the world it surveys, its parade of reeling potty-mouthed clowns (especially Mr. Rourke's cowboy chemist) still exudes a kind of doomy charisma. Think of them as denizens of a demonic sideshow.
Read on More Reviews at NYTimes.com

Did anyone actually go and see it?

Originally posted by Ensoul
Did anyone actually go and see it?

I'm gonna try and catch it tonight or tomorrow...

i saw it on monday in pasadena cali.

visually, it is great to watch. there are a lot of memorable scenes and the editing alone keeps you entertained.

as for the story and message...its not too deep. basically this guy, Ross, is addicted to meth and he goes around slumming it while funny things happen.

Billy Corgan's role is a doctor and he has one line, and that line is a running gag of shorts pertainging to when this guy named Frisbee gets shot in the balls.

Ugh. If there was technically a mark of F- I'm sure this movie would have received it -- solely based on its trailer and the fact that Jonas Akerlund is involved. I'm not sure what Corgan sees in his work... it shall remain a mystery for my entire life, I think. Maybe if Akerlund and Darren Aronofsky could fight a Celebrity DeathMatch on MTV and both die gruesome, horrible, drug-induced deaths. Perhaps rid our world of disgusting, manipulative, ignorantly pretentious cinema. Pshaw.

Hmm. Or maybe my opinion isn't quite clear in this post... lol.

-jill

Originally posted by DeviousJ
If I haven't even bothered to look at the Try short film, you can bet your ass I won't be seeing this movie ever

dont see it- its bad- its only interesting because the 2 "actors" are interesting to look at. and yea, he is so not subtle it hurts

i liked it. mostly for the visuals. ok, yeah, the plot is weak, but what kind of life do meth heads have, anyway? based on what i know of them, not much of one.

Ebert seemed to like it. I know, I know, Roger Ebert Thumbs-up thumbs down whore, etc. etc. But I'd say, personally, I agree with Ebert reviews about 70% of the time. (note the bad thing about Ebert reviews is that he's always pretty heavy on spoilers so watch out below)

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SPUN / *** (R) (out of four)

April 4, 2003


Ross: Jason Schwartzman
Spider Mike: John Leguizamo
Cookie: Mena Suvari
Frisbee: Patrick Fugit
Nikki: Brittany Murphy
The Cook: Mickey Rourke
Cop #1: Peter Stormare
Cop #2: Alexis Arquette

Newmarket Films presents a film directed by Jonas Akerlund. Written by Will De Los Santos and Creighton Vero. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R (for pervasive drug content, strong sexuality, language and some violence). Opening today at Landmark Century.




BY ROGER EBERT


"Spun" is a movie about going around and around and around on speed. Sometimes it can be exhausting to have a good time. The characters live within the orbit of Cook, who converts enormous quantities of non-prescription pills into drugs, and Spider Mike, who sells these and other drugs to people who usually can't pay him, leading to a lot of scenarios in which bodily harm is threatened in language learned from TV.

Because Cook is played with the studied weirdness of Mickey Rourke and Spider Mike with the tireless extroversion of John Leguizamo, "Spun" has an effortless wickedness. Rourke in particular has arrived at that point where he doesn't have to play heavy because he is heavy. Leguizamo has the effect of trying to talk himself into and out of trouble simultaneously.

Their world *******s characters played by Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore"), Mena Suvari ("American Beauty"), Patrick Fugit ("Almost Famous") and Brittany Murphy ("8 Mile" and "Just Married"). Uncanny, in a way, how they all bring along some of the aura of their famous earlier characters, as if this were a doc about Hollywood youth gone wrong.

Murphy made quite an impact at the Independent Spirit Awards by being unable to master the concept of reading the five nominees before opening the envelope, despite two helpful visits from the stage manager and lots of suggestions from the audience, but with Murphy, you always kind of wonder if she doesn't know exactly what she's doing.

Here she plays Nikki, Cook's girlfriend, which is the kind of situation you end up in when you need a lot of drugs for not a lot of money. She depends on Ross (Schwartzman) to chauffeur her everywhere in his desperately ill Volvo, sometimes taking him off on long missions through the city. These journeys have a queasy undertone since we know (although Ross sometimes forgets) that he has left his own current stripper girlfriend handcuffed to a bed. April (Chloe Hunter), the handcuffed girlfriend, is all the more furious because she realizes Ross is not sadistic but merely confused and absentminded.

The movie plays like a dark screwball comedy in which people run in and out of doors, get involved with mistaken identities, and desperately try to keep all their plates in the air. The film's charm, which is admittedly an acquired and elusive taste, comes from the fact that "Spun" does not romanticize its characters, does not enlarge or dramatize them, but seems to shake its head incredulously as these screw-ups persist in ruinous and insane behavior.

Leguizamo is fearless when it comes to depictions of sexual conduct. You may recall him as the transvestite Miss Chi-Chi Rodriguez in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" (1995), or more probably as the energetic Toulouse Lautrec in "Moulin Rouge," and he toured in his stage show "John Leguizamo's Sexaholixs." In "Spun" he demonstrates that although black socks have often played important roles in erotic films, there are still frontiers to be explored. What I have always enjoyed about him is the joy and abandon with which he approaches the right kind of role, as if it is play, not work. Here his energy inspires the others, causing even Fugit's slothful Frisbee to stir.

The movie is like the low-rent, road show version of those serious drug movies where everybody is macho and deadly. The characters in "Narc" would crush these characters under their thumbs. "Spun" does have two drug cops, played by Peter Stormare and Alexis Arquette, but they work for some kind of TV reality show, are followed by cameras, and are also strung out on speed.

The director, Jonas Akerlund, comes from Sweden via commercials and music videos, and has obviously studied "Requiem for a Dream" carefully, since he uses the same kind of speeded-up visual disconnections to suggest life on meth. His feel for his characters survives his technique, however, and it's interesting how this story and these people seem to have been living before the movie began and will continue after it is over; instead of a plot, we drop in on their lives. When Cook starts the mother of all kitchen fires, for example, he walks toward the camera (obligatory fireball behind him), already looking for a new motel room.

Here's another thing -- I noticed Ebert's reviews said that it was an "R" rating.. but I remember when reading the AICN review of it Knowles said that so far it was unrated... did they trim the flick from an NC-17 to get an R? :think:

If so, I've said it once and I'll say it again -- Fuck the MPAA and Jack Valenti can suck my balls.

what was billy's one line? someone mpeg it. :cool: