Spun (2003)

Synopsis: For a speed freak, time is an elastic concept. College drop-out Ross (Jason Schwartzman) learns this first-hand as he surrenders to a three day odyssey through a circus-like, crystal-meth Hell in the North Los Angeles Valley. It starts when Ross shows up at Spider Mike's (John Leguizamo)... For a speed freak, time is an elastic concept. College drop-out Ross (Jason Schwartzman) learns this first-hand as he surrenders to a three day odyssey through a circus-like, crystal-meth Hell in the North Los Angeles Valley. It starts when Ross shows up at Spider Mike's (John Leguizamo) dive bungalow, looking to score and desperate enough to risk Spider Mike's paranoid and mercurial temper. Spider Mike's companions at the bungalow that day include his greasy-haired, red-eyed girlfriend Cookie (Mena Suvari), the pimply, video game-addicted Frisbee (Patrick Fugit) and Nikki (Brittany Murphy), a giggly Vegas stripper, whose boyfriend The Cook (Mickey Rourke) concocts the local speed supply in his airless, combustible motel room laboratory.

Seduced by Nikki and her promise of an unending drug supply, Ross agrees to become chauffeur and errand boy for The Cook. Over the next few days, Ross ricochets between the hilarious and the bizarre as he makes his descent into the insomniac, anarchic world of meth junkies. He rescues Nikki's dog who has turned green from inhaling crank fumes, forgets he's left stripper April (Chloe Hunter) tied to his bed andhelps rounds up ingredients for The Cook. As the sleepless hours blur, Ross slides further from the "together" life he once had with girlfriend Amy (Charlotte Ayana), his true love, who has since dumped him, moved to LA and returns his calls only when she hopes she might be able to get the money Ross owes her. If Ross has any hope of returning the straight world, The Cook and Nikki prove a formidable obstacle.

Meanwhile, Frisbee and his four-hundred pound mother fall prey to the speed-snorting stars of BUST, a popular reality show. The TV cops (Peter Stormare & Alexis Arquette) stake out Frisbee's trailer, arrest him and force him to set up Spider Mike by wearing a wire. Frisbee suffers Spider Mike's wrath as Mike, dressed only in a sock, realizes the betrayal. Ross and Nikki narrowly escape the bust to spend an aimless night driving around in his beater Volvo, revealing their mutual loneliness and denial of what they have become. Nikki thinks she'll go back to Las Vegas to reunite with her abandoned baby; Ross wants he'll go to LA to win back Amy; but both have lost the will to break free of the downward spiral they're riding. In the words of The Cook, both have crossed the crystal-meth line of no return: they're "spun." With its humor, electric visual style and intensely experiential point of view, Spun explores the razor-fine line between the edge, and over the edge.

Spun augers a long-anticipated, big-screen comeback for actor Mickey Rourke. Grammy award and MTV Music Video award winning director Jonas Akerlund has assembled a dream indie cast: Fearless performances by Jason Schwartzman (Simone, Rushmore), John Leguizamo (Empire, Moulin Rouge), Mena Suvari (SAG Award for American Beauty), Patrick Fugit (White Oleander, Almost Famous) and Brittany Murphy (8 Mile) take the actors beyond the bounds of what we could imagine, in an ensemble of gritty, funny and outrageous roles. Director of Photography Eric Broms works exclusively for Akerlund and has developed, with him, the eye-popping visual style for which Akerlund's work is now famous. The original score was written and performed by Billy Corgan, formerly of the band The Smashing Pumpkins.

Producers Chris Hanley, Fernando Sullichin, Timothy Wayne Peternel and Danny Vinik are well-known for their taste-making choices of material and daring productions. Hanley's production company Muse, in various combinations with the others, is responsible for films like Buffalo 66, The Virgin Suicides, Larry Clark's Bully and Love Liza, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. -- © Newmarket Films [More]