Hey folks, Harry here and man... suddenly Monday morning at 10am is a long long ways a way. Moriarty will be seeing TRAFFIC later on tonight, so at least by January you'll be getting his review... maybe when we get the rest of his 90's list. Yeah... riiiiiiiiight. hehehehe.... Anyway, having seen 13 DAYS today, I can formally say it is not real competition for TRAFFIC... and at this point, I believe if USA FILMS pushes this film aggresively this could be our winner for BEST PICTURE... with the strongest competition coming from REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON and possibly CASTAWAY, though the word is still out on CASTAWAY, Zemeckis just finished a last minute final touch to the film... let's see if he pulls it off. Here's ToeJam with a sometime spoilerish review..... Here ya go....
Just got back from a 10 a.m. exhibitors’ screening of "Traffic" and I must say: it is everything I had hoped for and more. Seeing as how there is very little in the way of competition for the rest of the year, I can’t see any reason why "Traffic" won’t win the Oscar for Best Film. Unfortunately, there are so many great performances packed into the film that none of them will be nominated for Best Actor or Actress. However, any one of the stars could easily garner a nomination for best supporting player, and I imagine both the male and female categories will have at least one performance from "Traffic" nominated each.
The movie begins with Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner Manolo (no idea who the actor was…sorry) busting some drug smugglers in the deserts of Tijuana. Steven Soderbergh has given all the scenes taking place south of the border a scorched, washed-out look similar to the one in "Three Kings" and the early parts of "Pitch Black." I really liked this approach, as it reminded me very much of what I remember the Mexican border towns looking like during the few times that I have been there.
Del Toro is definitely the coolest guy in the movie. He is a maverick cop who seems to be the only guy not under the employ of the local drug cartel, and the only good guy not willing to mercilessly torture suspected associates of the cartel heads.
Later on we meet Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), two DEA agents. This partnering is just what you would expect it to be: hilarious and kick-ass at the same time. The two constantly share endearing barbs with one another, but they also get to take part in a pretty cool undercover drug deal early on in the film. Later on, they have to protect a key witness in a trial, but something heartbreaking happens, but you’ll have to see the film to find out what.
We are also introduced (in what order I can’t remember) to Ohio State Supreme Court Judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), who has just been offered the job of the U.S. anti-drug czar. Wakefield’s own daughter (Erika Christensen – who looks a lot like the love child of Julia Stiles and Jocinda from the Real World London) starts freebasing crack with her boyfriend (Topher Grace). In between bouts with his daughter’s escalating drug addiction, Wakefield goes on trips to various locales that are part of the Mexican-U.S. drug route. For example, he goes to a place called the El Paso Investigation Center (think that’s what it was called), where a whole bunch of government organizations collectively try to halt the drug trade. It is during these trips that Wakefield gets to meet an array of drug trade experts and investigators, who explain to Wakefield (and thus the audience) the various reasons why the drug trade is nearly unstoppable.
Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is married to one of the biggest drug traffickers in California, although she doesn’t even realize this until after Agents Gordon and Castro cart him off to jail. With all of her monetary assets frozen by the government, Helena goes to great lengths to keep the money flowing in, including (but not limited to) some toys made of cocaine that Benjamin Bratt, in a cameo, describes as "fucking good cocaine." Made me wonder if that could actually be done.
Once we are introduced to these major players, there are three basic plotlines that emerge: Helena’s husband’s trial, Wakefield’s struggle to get his daughter off crack, and Rodriguez’s participation in the quest to take down the Tijuana cartel. All three plots intertwine, but the characters only come into contact with one another occasionally. Any one of the plotlines could easily make a fuckin’ good movie, which is a testament to how great "Traffic" is.
I really could not find anything wrong with this movie. In fact, my only complaint is that I am going to have to wait at least a month to see the film again. The characters are all great and well drawn. Personally, I thought Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance was the standout. Not because she was any better than the rest of the cast, but because I just wasn’t expecting her to be on par with guys like Cheadle, Guzman, Del Toro, and her own husband Douglas, who we are all used to seeing in great performances. Even newcomers Erika Christensen and Topher Grace both do a superb job. They perfectly capture that familiar rich kid/casual drug user attitude, where they are so idealistic and elitist, but yet are so stupid that they get addicted to crack.
Steven Soderbergh does a great job with a film that could easily have become over-bloated and preachy. The editing is great, as there doesn’t seem to be one frame that isn’t just as important as the rest (for the record, the cut I saw clocks in right at 2 _ hours). I should probably also mention that Soderbergh gives the scenes with Douglas a fluorescent-tinged look like the one Michael Mann uses in films like "The Insider."
In fact, "Traffic" reminded me a lot of "The Insider," in that it’s a fucking great film about a very pertinent subject. I mean, this shit could very well be happening at this very moment, as you are reading this review. Also, guns are omnipresent, but yet they are rarely fired (save for a standoff early in the movie), much like in real life. And when they are fired, you will definitely feel the ramifications—there isn’t a lot of meaningless gunplay.
"Traffic" definitely takes the stance that the key to solving America’s drug problem is to eliminate the demand; in other words, prevent addiction, rather than pursue drug dealers as the cost of people’s lives. However, the film doesn’t criticize the government for its admirable campaign to stop drugs, only the inherent bureaucracy of it. I have a feeling that "Traffic" will top a lot of fanboy lists this year, as it seems to be the perfect blend of drama, crime and just plain coolness. It should also top a lot of critics’ lists, but I guess that doesn’t matter, because when you get down to it, "Traffic" is just a fucking great film.
TOEJAM
