No Spin Zone 

There are reviewers who say they don't watch films twice before they write their reviews. Not I. When I'm not sure about a film and I have a chance to watch it again I do.

Nice tie!

Spin follows four roommates who stumble through an odd, yet prototypical for a low budget indie, 24 hours.

Of the four roommates the central-and least intriguing, and yes, prototypical for an indie-plotline belongs to Hannibal (Matt Yarbray). Hannibal, having paid no rent for months and being $28,000 in debt to call girl Julie (Melissa Lowe) has been given the ultimatum find a job or move out.

The other roommates are serial killer Nigel (Matthew Vilichay), who's one day killing spree will rival 24's Jack Bauer; Dave (Tim Bewsher) who has to dump the bodies of two employees after an ill advised workplace game goes awry; and Brad (Mark Reilly) who will spend his day being mistaken for Nigel.

To this mix add a running X-File parody, one fiancé crushing on Dante from Clerks, a contract hit on Conan O'Brien, a mafia princess, unintentional necrophilia, a stolen corvette, a Star Wars conversation ripped from Clerks, a recycled Gary Busey joke,  and a series of job interviews that include NASA and Satan.

It's hard to have a vested interest when, with so much going on, none of the plotlines or jokes are allowed to gain any momentum or rhythm. Too many scenes unfold like improv sketches, as characters lethargically coast to scene's end. What energy is generated never fully transfers from one scene, or one character, to the next. By the time Brad is picked up by the cops the man should either be way more freaked out, or oblivious, than he is.

With so many elements, one expects Spin's multiple storylines and absurd characters to wildly bounce off each other. The mass chaos building until the film reaches a level of maniacal entropy. Instead Spin remains fairly sedate. Of course, it also doesn't help that, again, Spin's source code is so visible. A meta joke about a meta joke from a movie that most folks under 40 have been quoting for the last 13 years is a momentum killer--see Clerks II for further proof.

Although the film doesn't exactly move, it does feature some spot on casting. Watching the film you know exactly why everyone was picked for the roles they played.

Standing out are Vilichay as Nigel and Kathryn Weiss as Karen, Hannibal's fiancé. It's obvious that Vilichay enjoyed playing an over the top serial killer and it shows. While Weiss imbues Karen with a ferocious energy and a finely tuned sense of comic timing.  She elevates every scene she's in. There's so much more that could and should have been done with her as both Hannibal's fiancé and with her unhealthy/unholy crush on Dante.

As for Yarbary, it's not that he's bad, far from it. It's just that he's not given much to do.

If McQuilkin had just dropped the "finding a job plot" in the first 10 minutes and given Yarbary some heavy comedic lifting, just let Hannibal run roughshod all over Spin, there's no doubt that Yarbary's Hannibal would have been legendary.

Charles Judson is a local screen & comic book writer and a regular contributor and film critic for CinemATL.