Spun (2002)

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Directed by Jonas Åkerlund.

Starring John Leguizamo, Mickey Rourke, Peter Stormare, Brittany Murphy, Mena Suvari, Jason Schwartzman, Patrick Fugit.

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A crystal-meth addict struggles to get his next fix as he obsesses over a recent breakup in Spun, a black-comic drug drama from music video director Jonas Akerlund. Rushmore's Jason Schwartzman stars as Ross, a young man who finds his maniacal world crumbling around him over the course of one long weekend. Spun chronicles Ross' travails as he tries to score from his regular dealer, Spider Mike (John Leguizamo), who realizes during Ross' visit that he's misplaced his stash. Indisposed by the frantic drug search, Spider Mike's girlfriend, Cookie (Mena Suvari), enlists Ross to pick up her stripper friend Nikki (Brittany Murphy) from work, and when he grudgingly agrees, he learns that Nikki might have an inside line on some of her own speed, courtesy of The Cook (Mickey Rourke). Meanwhile, two bumbling cops are onto Spider Mike's trail, and in his paranoid-delusional state, he sets out to find out who set him up. Spun premiered at the 2002 CineVegas Film Festival before securing berths at the Sundance, Toronto, and South by Southwest festivals. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Everyqueers : Luster
by jlgdrd in Wicked Fun

hasn't rated it.

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"Jackson (laughing): Tattoos are cool. But it takes a little more than that to turn me on. Derek: Really? “Turn me on?” See I’m talking about love.Jackson: Hey. I’m just a guy.Derek: Hey, I’m just a guy too.They kiss. The above exchange summarizes the key strength of Luster, Everett Lewis’ dry, not altogether unsuccessful comedy on queer attraction. The title is a double-entendre’ for one caught up in the pitch of desire and the gleam of their beloved. It is a wry parable on the dangers of “love at first sight.” All the key characters are love victims, including our hero, Jackson, whose jolts of romantic epiphany are not reciprocated. Not for nothing is the music store milieu (ground zero for Luster) called “No Life.” Practically everyone is tortured by infatuation or poised for their one great, dangerous, ecstatic love to appear on the horizon. Luster doesn’t always work, but the moments when it does are splend ... " [More]

Strange
by sanny77 in sanny77 Blog

lost interest.

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"Some really weird shit, Jonas Åkerlund must have been high as a kite while shooting this picture! The only reason I rate this as high as 2 stars is due to to the performance by Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

lost interest.

Cult films are born, not made, and director Jonas Akerlund practices a not-so-blissful ignorance of this fact with Spun, a strenuously "extreme" addition to the amoral-hipsters-on-drugs genre. Boasting a cast of young, talented actors desperate to shake their boy- (or girl-) next-door images, Spun works so hard to be flip and arrogant, it doesn't even realize how square and sentimental it really is. Casting perennial nice guy Jason Schwartzman in the lead doesn't help: Though Akerlund ratchets up the "edginess" factor by showing him duct-tape a stripper's eyes and mouth shut, subsequent scenes revolve around his character's trite attempts at reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend, underscored by lots of would-be soulful brooding and Billy Corgan's plaintive acoustic score. Scenes with the ironically cast supporting actors (Debbie Harry, Mickey Rourke, and Eric Roberts among them) play like outtakes, with Akerlund indulging his performers' worst habits in tic-laden, over-edited sequences that last far longer than they should. It's as if the cast of MTV's The Real World was assigned to remake an Andy Warhol movie. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Tags: drugaddiction , amphetamines , Up , nervous , wild
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