Spun: Difference between revisions

'''''Spun''''' is a 2002 American [[black comedy]] [[crime film|crime drama]] film directed by [[Jonas Åkerlund]] from an original screenplay by [[William De Los Santos]] and Creighton Vero,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/summer2002/reports/sped_up.php |title=Jonas Akerlund's Spun - Filmmaker Magazine - Summer 2002 |publisher=Filmmaker Magazine |access-date=2013-12-14}}</ref> based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the [[Eugene, Oregon,]] drug subculture. TheIt filmfeatures starsan [[ensemble cast]], including [[Jason Schwartzman]], [[John Leguizamo]], [[Mena Suvari]], [[Patrick Fugit]], [[Peter Stormare]], [[Alexis Arquette]], [[Debbie Harry|Deborah Harry]], [[Rob Halford]], [[Eric Roberts]], [[Chloe Hunter]], [[Nicholas Gonzalez]], [[Brittany Murphy]], and [[Mickey Rourke]].

College dropout Ross ([[Jason Schwartzman]]) is a customer of Spider Mike ([[John Leguizamo]]), a methamphetamine dealer. Spider Mike and his girlfriend Cookie ([[Mena Suvari]]) are constantly arguing, and Ross strikes up a friendship with Nikki ([[Brittany Murphy]]), a fellow addict. Nikki takes Ross to meet her boyfriend, "The Cook" ([[Mickey Rourke]]), who supplies Spider Mike with drugs from a [[meth lab]] he has set up in a [[motel]] room. The Cook gives a small amount of meth to Ross in exchange for bringing Nikki home, and says that he will get in touch with Ross if he needs a driver.

Back at his apartment, Ross gets messages from his mother and his former girlfriend, Amy, wishing him a happy birthday. Ross, assuming that Amy still loves him, sporadically calls her and leaves messages on her answering machine. He then goes to the local [[strip club]] while high, leading to an intense pornographic [[hallucination]]. He takes April ([[Chloe Hunter]]), one of the dancers he has a relationship with, home and has sex with her in a variety of positions, the last of which leaves her tied to the bed, naked and fully spread. As they finish, the Cook calls with an emergency regarding Nikki's dog, Taco, which needs to be taken to the [[veterinarian]]. April tells him to untie her but Ross, still high, duct-tapes April's eyes and mouth shut to keep her quiet and leaves her bound to the bed, playing music to cover her gagged screams. Elsewhere, two policemen ([[Peter Stormare]] and [[Alexis Arquette]]) working with a TV crew, raid the trailer where Frisbee ([[Patrick Fugit]]), another one of Spider Mike's customers, lives, falsely believing that a meth lab is located there. They take Frisbee and his overweight mother into custody and threaten him into helping them on a [[drug bust]] against Spider Mike.

After driving the Cook around town to buy [[ephedrine]] pills, beer, and [[pornography]], Ross returns to his apartment to apologize to the helpless April. In theThe Cook's motelorders room,a heprostitute andto Nikkihis havemotel aroom, fightbut afterwhen ashe prostituteshows arrivesup, inhe responseand toNikki theargue Cook'sand invitingbreak her aroundup. Nikki ends their relationship, and calls Ross and asks him to take her to a bus station so she can go back to [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]], which. Ross doesagrees, again leaving April still tied to the bed. While Ross and Nikki are out, Frisbee, now wearing a wire, visits Spider Mike to buy some meth so the cops can arrest him. When he enters, Cookie attempts to seduce him, as revenge for Spider Mike using a [[phone sex]] line, but she finds the wire. As the cops burst in, a furious Spider Mike shoots Frisbee in the testicles; Spider Mike and Cookie are both arrested, and Frisbee is taken to the hospital. After Ross and Nikki go back to his apartment and find April gone (rescued by his lesbian neighbor ([[Deborah Harry]])), Ross finally drops Nikki off at the bus station, where they share a kiss, and hope to reunite if he ever goes to Vegas.

The film received mixed reactions, with some analysts remarking that the film added nothing new to the genre of [[List of drug films|drug movies]]. {{As of|2020|07}}, the film holds a 37% approval rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 79 reviews with an average rating of 45.70/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A chaotic drug movie that has little substance behind the stylistic flash."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spun|title=Spun (2003)|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=7 July 2020}}</ref> {{Metacritic film prose|41|27|access-date=19 November 2024}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spun Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/spun/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=www.metacritic.com |language=en}}</ref> ''[[Time Out London]]'' was particularly harsh, accusing the film of "smug [[Amoralism|amoral]]ism", and claiming that Åkerlund simply re-uses other people's ideas and techniques.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/film/75198.html|title=Spun film review|access-date=2007-03-27}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] was more sympathetic in his review, where he described the film as having "effortless wickedness". His main appraisal is the fact that the film in no way attempts to romanticiseromanticize any of the characters and further goes on to say, "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". Ebert does, however, explicitly mention the similarities between this and the earlier ''[[Requiem for a Dream]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=httphttps://www.rogerebert.suntimes.com/appsreviews/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030404/REVIEWS/304040305/1023spun-2003|title=Spun Review|access-date=2007-03-27 | work=Chicago Sun-Times}}</ref> This comparison may not have been lost on the filmmakers. The title on a [[pornography|pornographic]] tape purchased by a character reads "Rectum for a Dream", and the scenes which show consumption of the drug also show its dilatingconstricting effect on the pupils in [[fast cutting|fast cutscenes]], unlike ''Requiem for a Dream'', which shows pupil dilation. Both are incorrect pharmacologically.

The original music for ''Spun'' was written by [[Billy Corgan]]. The soundtrack to the film features songs by artists such as [[Iron Maiden]] and [[UFO (band)|UFO]] (performed by [[Zwan|The Djali Zwan]]), [[Ozzy Osbourne]], [[Mötley Crüe]], [[Blues Traveler]], [[Bathory (band)|Bathory]] (for whom Åkerlund once briefly played drums), [[Richie Havens]], [[Phantom Planet]] (with whom [[Jason Schwartzman]] played drums at the time), [[Per Gessle|Per Gessle (half of Roxette)]], [[Paola Bruna|Paola]], and [[Satyricon (band)|Satyricon]], whose video for the song "[[Nemesis Divina|Mother North]]" appears in the movie.

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