Spun (2002)

There's a moment watching Spun where you genuinely lose track of time, and that's entirely the point. The editing is so relentless, so jittery and fragmented, that the film physically replicates the experience of being inside a meth-addled brain. I've read that at one point it held a record for the sheer number of cuts in a feature film, and I believe it. You feel every single one of them. It's not a gimmick, though. It's a choice that pays off completely, because by the time you surface from this thing, you feel wrung out in the best possible way.

This is one of the most underrated films of the 2000s, full stop. People slept on it then and too many still sleep on it now, and I genuinely can't work out why.

The premise drops us into a few chaotic days in the life of Ross, our main character, drifting through the world of small-time drug culture. That world is grimy and desperate and shot through with a kind of bleak, absurdist black humour. But here's the thing: once you accept the setting, every other element of the film is operating at a level that most movies this raw and frenetic never bother to reach. There's real craft here, underneath all the noise and chaos.

Take the soundtrack. It's the work of Djali Zwan, the acoustic project put together by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, and it's an inspired pairing. There's something almost tender about laying these gentle, melancholic acoustic textures over such a frantic, degraded world. It shouldn't work as well as it does, but it perfectly captures the sadness that runs through the whole film like a fault line. Because beneath all the speed and the edits and the dark comedy, Spun is genuinely, achingly sad.

The cast are a huge part of why it lands so hard. This is a proper ensemble, and everyone fits together without a single weak link. But Brittany Murphy and Mickey Rourke are the ones who stay with you. Murphy brings this brittle, hyper-real energy that's almost impossible to look away from, and Rourke finds something genuinely menacing and magnetic in his role. There's weight to both performances. These aren't caricatures of addiction or poverty. There's a gravity to the depravity, if that makes any sense. A real human cost sitting just underneath all the feverish style.

That balance is what separates Spun from lesser films treading similar ground. It could so easily have been style without substance, a flashy exercise in excess that says nothing. Instead, it uses all that kinetic energy to pull you close to people who are genuinely suffering, people whose lives have contracted down to this one bleak, repetitive loop. It's uncomfortable viewing in places, as it should be. But it's never exploitative, and it's never cruel to its characters.

I think about films from this era that got the attention Spun deserved. Phone Booth from the same year, for instance, got a decent release and plenty of notice. Spun somehow slipped through the cracks and never found the audience it warranted. That's a genuine shame, because as a piece of filmmaking it's bold, emotionally honest and technically remarkable in ways that hold up completely.

Four stars, and I'd argue it deserves every one of them. If you haven't seen it, correct that. If you saw it years ago and wrote it off as style over substance, give it another go. You might be surprised how much it's stuck with you without you even realising it.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2002  | Watched: 2025-04-13

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Hulu
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
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