Spun (Åkerlund, 2002)IMDB LinkDrug movies fall in two different categories nowadays. If it is something like weed, then it is a harmless pothead comedy about HIGH-LARIOUS situations the characters encounter. If it is a harder drug, then it is about doing them would be as bad as hanging ourselves with barbed wire.
“Spun” is frantic, with constant edits, to try to capture the feeling of doing MDMA. Now, I’ve not done meth (yet), but one thing I know about movies that try to visually capture the effects of drugs, and that is only people who have not done it think it is accurate. For example, anyone who has heard of this drug, usually associates disgusting crackheads to it, with its effect being not being able to sleep and being active. To achieve this, the movie has everyone in the movie being dirty morons, and the sort of people who if they wear your jacket, you’d tell them to keep instead of getting it back and wearing it. And the effect is shown by fast cuts.
This is just an after-school special for cool kids. I’m not saying that meth is cool and should be compulsory supplement to every children’s diet, but the movie industry has always made movies that show the extreme sides of certain drugs, and we only mock them four decades later. Why can’t we be smart enough to laugh at them now?
2/5
