2002 Directed by Jonas Åkerlund
Over the course of three days Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks - including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook - but all he really wants to do is hook up with his old girlfriend, Amy.
Jason Schwartzman Mickey Rourke Brittany Murphy John Leguizamo Chloe Hunter Patrick Fugit Mena Suvari Eric Roberts Elisa Bocanegra China Chow Nicholas Gonzalez Charlotte Ayanna Josh Peck Debbie Harry Larry Drake Rob Halford Peter Stormare Alexis Arquette Billy Corgan Tony Kaye Ron Jeremy Julia Mendoza
Silver Nitrate Muse Productions Brink Films Little Magic Films Saggitaire Stone Canyon Entertainment
The Cook, Spun - syöksykierteessä
Crude humor and satire Crime, drugs and gangsters Humanity and the world around us Underdogs and coming of age weird, surreal, dream, bizarre or confusing funny, comedy, humor, jokes or hilarious drugs, violence, crime, gritty or cops teenager, school, friendship, funny or nerds band, songs, concert, musician or lyrics Show All…
holy fucking shit, i need to take a shower after watching this one. it's basically a more comedic version of Requiem For A Dream but with meth-heads. all the performances are solid, especially from schwartzman and murphy who absolutely kill it here. props to veteran music video director jonas åkerlund, he really infused his flashy style into this thing. there's extremely frantic & jumpy editing, fast cutting, extreme close-ups/rotating camera movements on the actors' faces and just an overall uncomfortable feeling when following all of these fucked up characters. heck, when someone takes a rip of ice in this movie, you can FEEL it, the audio will rip up in volume and it'll even cut to a shot the character shaking…
The Cook: "I tell ya, I remember a time when I was about... I was little, I don't know... 4, 5, something like that. We had this old dog that had a litter of puppies. And I walked in the bathroom one day and my mother was standing there, kneeling down... dog had a litter of about 8, and my mother was bending over killing each one of these little puppies in the bathtub. I remember I said "why?"— she said "I'm just killing what I can't take care of". Then my momma said to me, she looked at me and she said "I wish I could do that to you". Maybe she, maybe she shoulda."
Cinematic Time Capsule
2002 Marathon - Film #123
Requiem for a Speed-Fiend
Spoof. Dope. Crank. Creep. Bomb. Spank. Shit. Bang. Zip. Tweak. Charred. And a perfectly healthy green dog all come together to create the cinematic sensation of a four-day crystal marathon bender.
And after having experienced this drug-infused fever dream, I’m pretty sure the message was supposed to be that drugs are bad. Which is pretty ironic considering that I now need to go in search of a huge bottle of Advil to help ease my movie-induced headache.
I’ll be back shortly…
”You better untie me if you’re going to leave”
Like Requiem for a Dream, but a way more realized and less melodramatic take on addiction. Also Mickey Rourke is putting on some great work in this role and certainly indicates what would be his stellar return to acting a few years later in a far more enjoyable Aronofsky film.
One word, “grungy”.
That’s not what makes this film mediocre either. It’s just a bunch of tweakers under a microscope and you’ll either find it compelling or not. Very much in the vein of Arronofsky’s Requiem For a Dream, there is really good editing and some darkly comical moments but it remains truly lackluster. You’ll see post-Rushmore Schwartzman, some Leguizamo wang, pre-The Wrestler Mickey Rourke fanboy over wrestling, and you’ll miss Brittany Murphy. Very 2002.
Viewed on Tubi.
The ending to this bonkers movie is so quintessentially early aughts indie cinema in that it doesn't matter what's happened in the previous 90 minutes, the last 5 have got to be thick with ennui & accompanied by a similar, emotion-heavy soundtrack. Leave it to Mickey Rourke to perfectly deliver an absolutely crushing monologue in those last 5 minutes that just totally makes the whole movie. Also, you KNOW he's just wearing his own clothes in this movie, no wardrobe department needed, and that's why he's the best.
"i don't like resorting to violence but men.. they're evil" so true lesbian debbie harry
if i would have known that this movie had brittany murphy reprising her role as tai from clueless (on meth) and debbie harry as a bisexual badass biker woman, i would have watched this WAY sooner!!!
