Tag Archive for 'Mickey Rourke'

Spun

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 27, 2008
in Comedy, Crime, Drama and Drugs
. 0 Comments

For some reason I’m always intrigued by drug movies.  Maybe it’s because it’s something I know nothing about.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on what they were going for in Spun though.  It almost had an MTV, jazzed-up feel to it.  At times I think the film was trying to accurately portray what it’s like to be on crystal meth, but all the while being hip and cool about it.  Everything was shot with a lot of close-up lenses.  I know some would argue this really gets you in there, but I really prefer the wide-angle any day.  It gives you a feel for the scene and its surroundings.  There was also a lot of camera movement and jiggling along with some varying camera speeds with time lapse photography.  I think this is what may have confused me on the level of seriousness.

At times things were from almost a first person view.  Not like a first person video game, but from the viewpoint that you were in the group.  At other times the camera was pulled back a bit and I felt much like an outside observer.  This combined with some of the camera tricks are what made me feel like the film was “jazzed-up” to seem more hip and cool.  The main pair of cops trying to catch everyone also seemed like they might have been more at home as the two detectives from Hot Fuzz.  While most drug-centered films I’ve seen are trying to show how drugs are bad (Blow, Trainspotting, etc), this one almost made it seem maybe a little cool.  I felt the comedy aspects were counteracting the seriousness of the drugs.

One other aspect I really didn’t understand was the bleeping of some dialog and the blurring out of some nudity.  The reason this seemed weird is because they sometimes allowed you to hear the same word in an earlier scene.  Now not all nudity was blurred out, just some.  I could kind of see some consistency in the blurring, but it still didn’t make sense.  Maybe they were trying to avoid an NC-17 rating?

Even though I wasn’t completely on board with everything, this film did bring out an reaction and that is a sign of good art.  Who can say no to a movie starring Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Patrick Fugit, Mena Suvari, Deborah Harry?  Who’s Deborah Harry you ask?  Well you might also recognize her as the front woman for a band called Blondie.  Jason Schwartzman never ceases to amaze me and Rourke has been awesome in everything I’ve seen him in.  It was also cool watching Blondie kick the crap out of a punk in a convenient store.

I’m not really sure how to recommend this.  Some will be offended by the content and others will just get bored with the feel of it.  I’m glad I stuck through and watched it all.  Something to check out if you have Netflix.  It’s on the Watch Instantly list.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Animal Factory

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 28, 2007
in Based on a novel, Crime, Drama, Independent and Racism
. 1 Comment

This is a movie I’ve seen at Best Buy, Blockbuster, etc for a long time and I’ve always wondered what it’s like. The cover just makes it look so good. I wouldn’t say this was amazing, but I really liked it.

Directed by Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong are both inmates in a prison. Dafoe is the head of a faction in the prison and Furlong has just been incarcerated. Like most prison shows, movies and stories, Furlong needs to find some friends fast or he’ll turn into what they call “fresh fish”. This is where Dafoe and his gang of thugs step in.

Dafoe has never seemed like a big and scary person, but he pulled off being tough and formidable here. I wouldn’t want to mess with him. It’s no wonder so many stand up for him in this prison. For some weird reason, he latches onto Furlong and looks out for him; being genuinely friendly in the process. Dafoe sees something in this young man that he doesn’t have with his fellow inmates: intelligence, wit and somewhat of a striving to better oneself. The dynamic duo makes plans to escape. In the end only one of them makes it out, but that’s ok. We’re left feeling like this is how things were meant to be.

This left me wanting to finish watching all of Oz, a TV show about a hard-core prison. I was also left wondering why Dafoe took the time and effort to even look out for Furlong. Maybe this was a peek into the humanity of his character. I’d say this was also some good directing by Buscemi. Interestingly enough, he directed a couple episodes of Oz after making his prison movie. So I guess the real question is does Animal Factory remind me of Oz, or does Oz remind me of Animal Factory?