SPEED FREAKS

Tweaker Flick The Latest Spin On A Spun-out Genre

Review - "Spun"
Film By David King
Starring Jason Schwartzman, John Leguizamo and Mickey Rourke; Directed by
Jonas Akerlund Opens Friday, June 27 Uptown Screen

No matter how savvy the marketing or how stellar the cast, it is becoming
tough to get revved up for a dope flick. After Trainspotting, Requiem For a
Dream and Traffic, it's as if we've already been rehabilitated, with little
room left for catharsis.

There was a golden day when we all happily shuffled into our seats to watch
our favourite actors descend into a parallel universe of drug addiction.
Since playing an addict can be an actor's most difficult challenge, we
honoured those performances with sober gratitude.

One such performance was Mickey Rourke's portrayal of an alcoholic in the
1987 film Barfly. Alongside Faye Dunaway, Rourke trashed his glamorous
image to drag the audience into an abyss of dipsomania. And in Barfly, we
cared.

Dunaway moved on but, like a bad trip, Mickey Rourke has continued his
descent over the years. Now the personification of every sleazy Californian
he's ever played, it appears he's swallowed his old self and surrendered to
being typecast as Hollywood's A-list junkie-thug.

In Spun, the debut feature of MTV maverick Jonas Akerlund, we hope Rourke
will somehow turn things around as The Cook, who concocts an endless supply
of dope in a makeshift motel room lab. We also hope we'll see some fine
casting play itself out, with actors like Brittany Murphy, Mena Suvari,
John Leguizamo and Jason Schwartzman along for the ride. Backed by the
producers of Buffalo 66 and American Psycho, scored by Smashing Pumpkins'
Billy Corgan and featuring a cameo by Deborah Harry, there's more than
enough supply here to get you your fix.

Akerlund, best known for directing the video for Madonna's "Ray of Light,"
agreed to make the film as long as he got full control of the editing,
which has unfortunately turned out to be the film's most dynamic attribute.
Like Trainspotting, the whole success of Spun relies heavily on
characterization and the absurd, comic places drugs that can take us.
Unlike Trainspotting, however, this film's characters don't develop and, in
a crystal meth haze, they never quite come down from their high.

Spun does have its good moments. In between the sound effects and continual
nervous twitches of each character inhaling dust, there's a refreshing
frenzy that has been spliced to perfection in editing. The film often leans
towards cartoon-ish absurdity, and its animation and situations are
sometimes creative, humorous distractions from the whole. But we keep
waiting for something bigger to happen, a force to unravel everything into
one much more sobering picture. When things finally do unravel, we've
waited too long to care.

One might call Spun substance abuse without much substance. Given that it's
his feature film debut as a director, Akerlund may deserve more forgiveness
than Rourke does - will the real Mickey Rourke please stand up?