Watching movies about substances, I accidentally came across this rarity. In the localization from somewhere came “Aerobatics”, although in Russian this slang word is better translated as “tortured” or “studded”. Although, most likely, this is a reference to the book of the famous author of Russian drug prose Bayan Shiryanov with a similar name.
Actually, the whole movie is a big low-budget meth party with Mickey Rourke and Jason Schwartzman - this actor you could see in Rushmore Academy or any other Wes Anderson film. In the story, a guy named Ross (Schwartzman's hero) lives in a spit motel and rides around the city under speeds, mostly to the same spit huts to his friends. One day, on the way from the huckster, he gives a girl a ride and gets into the clutches of her boyfriend, part-time crazy cooker (Mickey Rourke). Now he must carry out all his errands in exchange for safety and another dose.
A film about what methamphetamine abuse leads to looks like a perfect anti-drug propaganda. Old film, rotten teeth, skin sores, shit, powders, sperm and blood - all this greasy strokes paints us the image of that one-story America, where you do not want to go for the weekend. The degree of absurdity, cruelty and abomination of what is happening on the screen is really quite high, be careful.
But, in addition to tin, this tape is also interesting for artistic content. The camera’s view of God perfectly conveys the pettiness of events and slightly protects the viewer from what is happening, and criticism of society (what local cops stand for) organically complements the picture. Although the animation of the main character's parishes is, of course, a little too much - there are no such hallucinations under methamphetamine. The authors watched “Requiem for a Dream” (it came out two years before “Spun”) and this is noticeable by the twitchy editing and stylistic techniques, like super-close plans, which, like under a microscope, demonstrate all the dirt under the nails of the characters, both literally and figuratively.
As a result, it turned out not that a masterpiece, but a quite cheerful author's film, where the nature and consequences of addiction are explored. Although many viewers will call it a simple black woman.
Once, in 2016, I came across a film about drugs, at that time I myself was stuck, so the speedy satire on the consumer of stimulants Ros came in handy. One bad thing is that my dosage was growing and my humor was evaporated. You can't say anything about the movie. What about Spun? The hair dryer. No, not the one who dries his hair, but the one who sells for... for anything. Cleaning the apartment, night shift, walks, parties, construction work. Amphetamine is a universal thing, can be used both for its intended purpose and out of boredom, and yet, and this is its most insidious action - it increases self-esteem, burns out the negative space and gives motivation. True teeth and brains turn into rotten jelly, but it will be later, right?
Growing - a typical consumer of "fast", traces of tobacco ash on clothes, blood-cut nails, a sleepy look. Its habitat is a small room in the hotel, and priority is white powder, fresh, undiluted. And so, one typical day, arriving at the dens to his friend-dealer Spider, Ross found that there was no amphetamine, and Spider himself is in a fierce marathon, which naturally prevents a good deal. One thing is good - a lovely lady was spinning at the den, she promised our hero high-speed distances, and maoathon shores, for one simple service.
So begins the journey of Rosa through the wilds of various marginalized, and the thin ice of interaction with the world of artisanal amphetamine production.
I am convinced that Jonas Okerdund has his own special vision, missed through the experience of many years of filming video clips, Spun turned out to be just such, fast, daring, chaotic in places, but with a finely written psychological essay of the author. Entering the musical, and not only, the party Jonas is very familiar with the “internal” side of the issue of fast drugs. Therefore, the images and dynamics of the film turned out to be balanced grotesque, but authentic. Comedy and absurdity go side by side with the realities of life typical lovers of smell. Why do I know that?
Because I had experience. Healthy Mickey Rourke, against which David Schwartzman seems a dependent ant, Rourke is chic, dragged by life as a cooker who rules his small flock in the form of several customers, and a hand dealer. And then there is a flurry of episodic cameos, including, and this is surprising, Rob Halford (Judas priest), Ron Jeremy (Oldphages will understand), Peter Stormare, who needs no introduction, because it adorns the episode, charisma. Brittany Murphy, peace to her ashes.
And of course, David Schwarzman, who has succeeded in this tragicomic role more than completely.
In short, if you want quality, and not particularly fastidious to the author's chips, then Spun will give you an excursion into this filthy world of fast drugs, and remember - it is better to enjoy natural stimulation from a good deed than rape your brain with incomprehensible substances that are cooked in someone's dirty kitchen.
I heard about this movie in 2005. Came to me, so my friend in the store, where he worked as a seller of discs and says: “Look!”, and told me about the moment, which, say funny, but which I, after watching this picture, in the film itself and did not find.
So I sat down to watch the comedy. It’s like it’s like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” And the funny moments, of course, were. But it's not a comedy. Not at all. It's more of a drama. Or drama comedy.
Everything is focused on the kid — Rosse. He went to his friends to get high. The whole thing went around meth. Drug addicts have their own problems, their own daily routine. And we are immersed in the whole inner kitchen of this slice of society. People whose lives are different except around drugs and everything connected with them, and can not exist.
And as we watched the "comings," I laughed. That's why. But when the picture turned dramatic to the viewer, I was somewhat horrified. He was happy at the same time. I am glad that even in my inner circle there are no drug addicts.
There is nothing great to say about the actors except that they are all excellent performers of their assigned roles. And the roles here are such that I think there are no positive characters. The most famous is Mickey Rourke. The director told him that he would almost refresh his career. Hard to say. This film is not such a shame to make such loud statements.
So what's the movie like then? He's very strange. With cartoon inserts that just make a plus. Some of their stories that are intertwined. With multiple scenes from the 18+ category. At the same time, he, I repeat, is about a slice of society, but he himself is like a slice of cinema.
Should I recommend him to anyone? I would only recommend it to some of my friends from the category of connoisseurs of unusual cinema.
P.s.:Emmy Still a positive character.
The film left mixed impressions. On the one hand, excellent directorial and acting work. On the other hand, an incredible naturalism, which made us recollect with shudder the extremely oversaturated period of our own life.
The atmosphere of the methamphetamine marathon with its frenzy, delusion, aggression and drive is conveyed simply incredibly accurately. All this is fun and funny, but the end was and still is sad.
A story about how simple and artless to go out on the old topic of drugs, in parallel rinsing the viewer’s brain with social advertising.
Well, that's what we've done with Requiem.
This is not something I would like to see twice in life.
All other things being equal, if Requiem had a specific and wide target audience, building opaque analogies with any destructive intersex relationships, melodramatically cycled on romance (there is nothing, but its niche found a similar bash with all sorts of “50 shades” in a slightly more difficult tragic coverage), then here in terms of additional meanings, of course, a span. Petty underpsychology in the background can not be considered a meaning, sorry: the attempt to consider the causes of use is rude and in its base has such a strong social negativity that it causes disgust.
Consumers won't like it. For those who don’t use cacti, why the fuck are cacti?
There remains a narrow circle of an extremely destructive niche, into which latent narcs, afraid of all kinds of substances, but irrationally striving and conditionally generalized grunge-kids, stuck in teenage protests, fall.
Well, humor rarely sucks.
It often happens that movies associated with addiction to drugs become cult in some circles. Literally in a moment, the common features of Danny Boyle’s “On the Needle” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” appear in memory. They revealed the psychology of hardened drug addicts, their existence outside the boundaries of ordinary society, ultimately leading to a fatal ending. However, in the rhythm and display of addiction to drugs, the youth film of the Swede Jonas Åkerlund “Aerobatics” ("Spun) is more pronounced in a comedic way, although what comedy can be if we are shown both drug addicts and those who sell methamphetamines, as well as those who make them, and those who “cover” and sponsor this criminal production? It is unlikely that anyone will smile if the misfortune of drug addiction affects someone in his environment.
Moving on to the very style of the film “Aerobatics”, it is necessary to take into account the fact that its director is not only a native of the harsh climatic conditions of Scandinavia, but also that he is mainly a clipmaker. The fact is that the Scandinavian countries are the leaders in the total number of musical groups that play heavy music. So Jonas Okerlund began with the shooting of clips for groups in this direction. It was only later that he would work with Madonna, but he did not have a beginning for pop music. So it turns out that “Aerobatics” in many scenes is similar to short cuts, then mounted into a single video album. And the picture “Aerobatics” is a stretched by all standards clip. But here's what's strange: Okerlund is known for music, and in the film, it is impossible to find rock compositions. So wanted the director to be a director of feature films and forgot that he could help in creating a high-class film?
The viewer, who does not know how “Aerobatics” is shot, needs to prepare for the fact that Akerlund, together with Johan Söderberg, was also engaged in editing the film, and the film is distinguished by sharp differences, overlapping frames on each other, which makes the intensity of the picture give the impression of a galloping horse jumping over barriers. So get ready, a potential viewer, that the rhythm of the film can seem extremely sharp and ragged. But those who will be able to normally perceive the “Aerobatics” in its dynamics, fully engage in this atmosphere of constant frenzy, mat and inadequate behavior of its heroes, and in some places there will be an opportunity to understand why, being under narcotic influence, the characters of the film act one way or another. No, do not look for logic, you need to observe and realize that almost all the actors here are somehow marginal elements.
The precipitation from such faces can hardly be called pleasant, but if you look differently and expose them to the nerve, then suddenly one distinct statement appears that the actors engaged in this picture, thanks to their youth, played with all their heart. I hope they all didn’t know the drug frenzy, but who knows? Okerlund gathered under his banners Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo and Menu Suvari as promising actors, and on the other hand, in opposition to them sent one experienced performer, but what! This is Mickey Rourke. He was no longer that sex symbol and his appearance women did not come out of boiling water, but now Mickey has turned into an aggressive and brutal man, whom people of his sex should be afraid of. That's just the way his hero earns a negative reaction. As for Schwarzman, here he showed himself in the best way, playing one of the most memorable roles in his career. And the rest of his colleagues will also arrange fireworks expressive morals.
Yes, if we consider the film “Aerobatics” from the acting side, then there is something to see and consider, thanks to the glorious performance of their characters by young actors. A non-standard approach to the method of presentation of this film also sets it apart. But his main idea, which is based on the use of prohibited drugs, can not cause a pleasant reaction. So:
Before us is a picture in which the viewer will be able, if not completely immersed, then at least "look" into the life of a drug addict, which by and large is little. Probably, it can be called some kind of “crazy, with an ever-changing mood and pictures around him, aerobatics”. In which, by the way, it is not so easy to exist without getting burned every day about your own mistakes.
I watched this picture because of Rourke, who plays an underground meth producer who wears a cowboy hat on his head (which is not surprising at all), loves women with “big boobs and small ass” and often “attached” himself to the manufactured product. I can say that I didn’t see anything strange or unusual in this role. This type is often found in characters played by Mickey.
Surprisingly, I liked the film very much. I don't really like those pictures where drugs play a major role. However, it is absolutely certain that such films can even be a guide for young minds, how not to fall for this bait. After all, watching this movie, in some moments I became really scared.
Indeed, the life of a drug addict, which is actually a kind of “marathon” from dose to dose, is conveyed on screen very well. And the heaviness on the soul after watching this movie definitely remains. But I must say that there is also humor in the picture. Not bad at all.
And in all this there is a clear thought about what can happen, and probably happens to people who have lost the most precious feeling in the world - love. Someone is the love of his girlfriend, someone is his child, someone is his mother.
Ross, an unemployed undergraduate student who is in dire need of a dose, is tipped off by his Spider dealer Mike, who ends up "in a dream factory." Here, in the “laboratory of the Wizard Cook”, the owner evaporates with kilograms from pharmacy tablets amphetamine – the number one American drug illegally produced by guerrilla methods in handicraft conditions.
Sniffed, eaten or injected for the sake of a unique feeling of boundless power, "meth" subjugates the minds and feelings of millions - from "golden youth" to teenagers-dumbs, consuming it in astronomical quantities. Along with the next dose begins a three-day hallucinogenic journey of Ross, in which he loses the idea not only of time, but also of himself.
The plot of this multi-figure narrative from the life of nariks and loharics is resolutely not retelling. Each of the dozen charming losers acts as a beneficiary and therefore involuntarily pulls the blanket over himself. At the same time, the quietest of all psychopaths, Ross, even as the main character, takes the most passive position: he is the driver for secondary characters.
The film flows as if by itself, “encouraging” only in the moments of taking the next dose, which every time prevents Ross from returning home, where he is waiting, will not wait for a naked stripper, handcuffed to the bed.
After "Trainspotting," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "Acid House," black comedies about drug addicts began to pop up like mushrooms in the August woods. They found so much that only the image of the syringe on the poster can cause serious breakage. However, those who want to stand in the cherished territory, where there is an exit beyond the limits of consciousness, have not decreased over the years.
Here is the young Swede Jonas Ekerlund, the author of the clips of Madonna and Prodigy, who got with his debut opus Spun (or “Turning”, but not “Aerobatics”, as he was called here) in the Guinness Book of Records, due to the use of an unprecedented number of editing glues – 5300, also decides to look at the world through the eyes of a chronic junkie. This a priori gives him a chance to come up with a lot of idiotic and hilarious gags using acid glitches and even erotic animation.
But the film is remembered not so much by jokes as by the acting ensemble. One can only wonder how glamorous and beautiful (not only in American) girls - Mina Suvari and Brittany Murphy - were not afraid to participate in this dubious underground film hangout. Their broken eyes and the rest of the combat coloring in the degree of vulgarity go beyond all the usual norms and may well give odds to the ugliness that the male half makes here.
It is clear that Mickey Rourke (finally appearing here after another plastic surgery with a quite decent face) is not afraid of anything for a long time: for his sake alone in the self-parody role of Cook, it is worth watching this movie. But there is also Eric Roberts with an almost clown entreprise faggot, and naked John Leguizamo with a sock covering the causal place, and Peter Stormare in the role of a scumbag cop from a realty show, and already mentioned Mina, fighting with constipation on a push ... And in between their solo numbers - you are waiting for minutes of genuine melancholy under the guitar brutes of the leader of Smashing Pumpkins.
The plotlessness of Spun has a good alibi: this is the world seen in the unconscious - through the eyes of a stoned Ross, and how he can be in this state, not everyone knows. From the film it follows that not so terrible...
Methamphetamine, N-methyl-1-phenylpropane-2-amine, C10H15N is an interesting thing, a white crystalline substance resembling salt, a good psychostimulant, the use of which contributes to the growth of no less good dependence on the drug. And, I must tell you that the real methamphetamine hydrochloride is quite common, although for psychiatric purposes, for the treatment of depression and narcolepsy, was produced in the dead USSR until the 70s, having the name pervitin. They can be pricked, you can smoke its pairs, you can smell ... and then snorted: euphoric elevation, streams of thoughts and rush without stopping and climbing one on the other, do not want to eat at all, the pressure rises, the heart beats rapidly, the pupils expand into all eyes, and the brain boils and pulsates, demanding action and coloring emotions with bright strokes.
John Leguizamo-Spider is a drug dealer living in a kind of squat, in which all the time there is a mess and collapse, in tattoos, in rings, with a loose nervous system. And pushes Leguizamo familiar passers-by the same methamphetamine. But once a slightly long-haired kid, Ross, who came for a dose, did not have enough goods. Where would he go? I've been high again! Brittany Murphy-Nickey is a sexy blonde stripper who sometimes hangs out in this squat. For the storyline, the main word is "sexy blonde." She is a friend of "Chef"-Mickey Rourke - he cooks meth here in a motel, does not disturb anyone, the laboratory is there, everything is smoked and smoked, sometimes he will smell. And so, since Ross needed a dose, he meets the "chef" and becomes like his driver: what do you need, even in the middle of the night, even if Chloe Hunter is completely naked chained to your bed, go to him and take where he soaps there. And something they all the film drive, sniffing methamphetamine and get into all sorts of interesting situations, not sleeping for days under the stone, until the laboratory of the “chef” does not explode, Nikki does not quarrel with him, but a rotten metallurgist who is not averse in his trailer to chase Satyricon and Bathory, surrenders the “spider” and his girlfriend.
In an obsessively comedic manner with periodic music and video work (Akerlund is primarily a director of video clips) and emotionally unstable characters whose nerves break down, whose nerves can shoot you, and after five seconds hug you, the authors show the life of ordinary meth addicts. To some extent, debauchery, lack of care for their body (instead, the characters have a diverse, eye-catching appearance), loss of social status and moral sophistication, dependence on the arrival of bright emotions. Screams, squeals, quarrels, tenderness and tears. Meth is sniffed by strippers, meth sniffed by rich men, meth sniffed by working men, met sniffed by cops. And then there's such a hell of a relief and rush that thoughts turn into thousands of tree leaves fluttering in the wind. However, the acuity of sensations disappears when the meth ends its action. And there is anger, apathy, touchiness, so hot you can shoot someone, the psyche is shaken, the emotional state is unstable.
Catal, Ross rolled all those comrades. And in a porn store, where the seller is part-time Rob Halford himself from Judas Priest, and in a strip bar, where the same activity is engaged in by none other than Ron Jeremy, and the numbers announce Tony Kay that he once played in Yes. Finally, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and Debi Harry of Blondie, and even Eric Roberts as a rich homosexual surrounded by muscular boys, will also appear in the film. Akerlund scored star cameos, inserted in the episode a clip on Mother North from Satyricon, Bathory, in which he played drums, and all sorts of other fatal things, and made a very good fashionable and reckless comedy drama on the topic of meth and drugs as such. Only somehow superficially all this, I can not believe at all, the emotions of the actors are played, although Akerlund, apparently, did not try to achieve realism, instead - to convey feeling, disconnection, recklessness, and even something musical constantly in the picture blows, rock and roll. Everything is fashionable and even stylish, as in bright videos. Nikki changes her sexy body five times if not more, Rourke flaunts in a cowboy outfit, Leguizamo I told you, drug cops look like bandits, and only Ross in some ragged baseball green jacket is puzzling with his appearance. And the sunglasses in the picture, they're the biggest, great ones. Bright and memorable characters.