Spun

I just finished watching Spun, by Jonas Akerlund, and I was blown away. He used all of the tricks that he learned making music videos and applied them to a feature-length film with a great cast. The quick cuts and Aronofsky-esque footage of things like the car being put into park and the tiny meth crystals flying up a rolled-up dollar bill into a character's nose make the film all the more unique. The movie is both dark and humorous, led by the neurotic Jason Schwartzman as Ross. It is a mesmerizing look into the life of a group of drug addicts over the course of a few days. While Schwartzman takes the lead, the true center of the film is meth. Everything revolves around it, around the idea of it more than the drug itself, I think. Drugs aside, the young Patrick Fugit steals the show. He plays a young, pimpled, metal-head, meth-addicted kid caught up in the middle of something he's either too young or too high to understand. The late Brittany Murphy has moments of brilliance, but overall I think that she is the weakest link in the film. Mickey Rourke owns his role as a meth-cooking cowboy. Spun is one of the best drug films I have ever seen, and it has earned its place in my collection, right between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Blow.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrWD1kVi0ME