Traffic
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Movie Reviews of Traffic
Movie Review: Mesmerizing
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, I'm sorry, that's a seriously cliched word, but how else am I supposed to describe a movie where I didn't even NOTICE the passage of time until almost the two-hour mark? There's a lot of elements at work here, but let me talk about the top three that make it so great:
1) The cast. Give me Don Cheadle, Miguel Ferrer, and Benicio del Toro in the same movie and I want to see it. Throw in Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas, and Luis Guzman and I am SO there (OK so I missed this in theatres and just discovered it on DVD). I'm not familiar with Erika Christensen's work, but she is spot-on as the druggie daughter-- even if I would have preferred that her daddy throw her spoiled brat ass in jail a la Martin Sheen/Charlie Sheen (and DON'T get on my case about addiction-is-a-disease, because the way the film portrayed her was that she just didn't give a damn; I didn't see any suffering there). And Topher Grace??? "That 70's Show" TOPHER GRACE????? DAMN, that kid has a future-- Soderburgh showed exceptional insight in casting him, as it would have been soooo much easier (and predictable) to show the guy who gets the drug czar's daughter hooked on drugs as some low-life scumbag, instead of Mr. clean-cut boy-next-door. Nice.
Catherine Zeta-Jones; I haven't seen most of her films, but she is a dynamic presence here-- probably the strongest pregnant female character since Frances McDormand in FARGO, and as loathsome and self-serving as McDormand was admirable.
Benicio del Toro's Oscar was well-deserved-- imagine giving an award to an actor for just playing a human being! No heavy make-up, no tics, no dramatic speeches-- just plain HONESTY. Astonishing.
I could go on, but suffice to say there isn't a weak performance in the entire cast. My only beef? I would have loved to see Javier and Wakefield meet-- they could learn so much from one another.
2) The script. A great cast without a great script is a "box movie." You know, the ones that run ads showing the cast in little boxes at the bottom, a la the 70s disaster movies? (credit Roger Ebert). TRAFFIC is most definitely NOT a "box movie." I didn't see a manifesto on the evils of drug use, or the failure of the war on drugs, or any kind of MESSAGE writ large-- I saw intelligent characters who interact with one another and make choices and mistakes and keep the viewer involved with them AS PEOPLE, not as pawns in a morality play. Another well-deserved Oscar to writer Stephen Gaghan; without this script, it WOULD have been a box movie-- albeit one with funny colors. Which brings me to the third element:
3) The look. For this I credit not only Soderburgh, but the editors, cinematographers, art directors...all of those who contributed to the unique look of this film. From the shaky camera to the washed-out yellows in the Mexico sequences to the cold blues of the Douglas/Christensen sequences, the LOOK of the film enhances everything that is done and said without seeming pretentious or obvious.
I don't know if I've been able to convey how well all of the elements combine to make such an eminently watchable film.Take whatever stance you want on the U.S. drug policy-- this film is more concerned with telling its stories. You can't get more watchable than that.
Movie Review: Mesmerizing
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, I'm sorry, that's a seriously cliched word, but how else am I supposed to describe a movie where I didn't even NOTICE the passage of time until almost the two-hour mark? There's a lot of elements at work here, but let me talk about the top three that make it so great:
1) The cast. Give me Don Cheadle, Miguel Ferrer, and Benicio del Toro in the same movie and I want to see it. Throw in Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas, and Luis Guzman and I am SO there...I'm not familiar with Erika Christensen's work, but she is spot-on as the druggie daughter-- even if I would have preferred that her daddy throw her spoiled brat in jail a la Martin Sheen/Charlie Sheen (and DON'T get on my case about addiction-is-a-disease, because the way the film portrayed her was that she just didn't give a...; I didn't see any suffering there). And Topher trace? "That 70's Show" TOPHER GRACE?...that kid has a future-- Soderburgh showed exceptional insight in casting him, as it would have been soooo much easier (and predictable) to show the guy who gets the drug czar's daughter hooked on drugs as some low-life scumbag, instead of Mr. clean-cut boy-next-door. Nice.
Catherine Zeta-Jones; I haven't seen most of her films, but she is a dynamic presence here-- probably the strongest pregnant female character since Frances McDormand in FARGO, and as loathsome and self-serving as McDormand was admirable.
Benicio del Toro's Oscar was well-deserved-- imagine giving an award to an actor for just playing a human being! No heavy make-up, no tics, no dramatic speeches-- just plain HONESTY. Astonishing.
I could go on, but suffice to say there isn't a weak performance in the entire cast. My only beef? I would have loved to see Javier and Wakefield meet-- they could learn so much from one another.
2) The script. A great cast without a great script is a "box movie." You know, the ones that run ads showing the cast in little boxes at the bottom, a la the 70s disaster movies? (credit Roger Ebert). TRAFFIC is most definitely NOT a "box movie." I didn't see a manifesto on the evils of drug use, or the failure of the war on drugs, or any kind of MESSAGE writ large-- I saw intelligent characters who interact with one another and make choices and mistakes and keep the viewer involved with them AS PEOPLE, not as pawns in a morality play. Another well-deserved Oscar to writer Stephen Gaghan; without this script, it WOULD have been a box movie-- albeit one with funny colors. Which brings me to the third element:
3) The look. For this I credit not only Soderburgh, but the editors, cinematographers, art directors...all of those who contributed to the unique look of this film. From the shaky camera to the washed-out yellows in the Mexico sequences to the cold blues of the Douglas/Christensen sequences, the LOOK of the film enhances everything that is done and said without seeming pretentious or obvious.
I don't know if I've been able to convey how well all of the elements combine to make such an eminently watchable film.Take whatever stance you want on the U.S. drug policy-- this film is more concerned with telling its stories. You can't get more watchable than that.
Movie Review: The drug traffic as it really is and from all three perspectives
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is intense, complex and firmly grounded in reality. The topic is the drug traffic between the United States and Mexico and it follows three interconnected yet somewhat distinct plotlines.
One is set in suburban, affluent Ohio. Michael Douglas plays a judge who has just been nominated by the President of the United States to be the drug czar. Unknown to him, his sixteen-year-old daughter is a heavy user, regularly attending drug parties with her equally affluent friends. Although her mother knows that she is a user, she does not tell her husband, rationalizing it based on the fact that she also used drugs when she was young. As the Douglas character goes to Washington D. C. and walks the halls of power and then goes out into the field to learn more, the daughter's usage spirals out of control until she ends up prostituting herself.
Another plotline is set in San Diego, California, the incoming transit point for drugs from Mexico. Two local police officers intercept a major shipment and capture the local boss. They manage to turn him and he identifies the local kingpin, a married man who is a pillar in the community.
The third plotline involves two local police officers in Tijuana, Mexico and the drug cartel operating out of that city. The police officers are essentially honest, but begin working with a general of the Mexican army and are sucked into the violent morass that is the drug war between law enforcement and the cartels and also between the cartels themselves.
The brutal honesty of this movie in presenting the drug trade as it is makes it almost at the level of a documentary. Some of the best brutally honest lines are uttered by a DEA agent, a drug trafficker and a young man who is a user. The DEA agent responds to a question about their budget by pointing out that the profits in the drug trade or so high that the DEA budget simply cannot compete on the monetary level. The drug trafficker talks about how they did a statistical regression analysis on the movement of vehicles through the border check and concluded that it was cost effective to simply send the vehicles through the border check. They could accept the occasional loss as a normal cost of doing business. When Michael Douglas is searching the black ghetto for his daughter, the drug-using friend of his daughter forcefully points out how the profits of the trade will always lead to greed winning out over the common good.
Presenting the drug trade from the three sides of supplier, consumer and law enforcement, this movie deserves all the awards it received. It is dynamite on a disk.
Movie Review: E.Christensen Needed to Win an Oscar 4 her Great Acting.
Summary: 5 Stars
September 29, 2003My Review of Traffic:
One has to understand that the movie titled, "Traffic" brings
an interesting ending to the story of not having the perfect ending
for all audiences. One must also see the issue
that drugs in real life and just like in the movie is a war that will definitely rage on until the end of the World, this earth we live in.
The Drug Dealers, and The King Pins will be replaced by new guys in the organization, and a new cycle will continue. Mr. Soderberg
i feel has tapped into the mind of the subject, and has brought a real life motion picture that people can relate to-from watching the news,etc. The World is not perfect, the Law is not perfect, but there will always be those who always be there battaling this Evil Vision which is not just consuming people lives, but sending them to their graves.
Second, Erika Christensens character was really a light that really needed to be added in the film because she just played the part superbly. . .Erikas character in real life has to exist, nice young rich girls out there who have it all, but who crave the issue of illegal substances, and whom hide their activities from their loving parents-PARENTS who have alot of influence in todays society, in this day and age.
This movie is recommended, Traffic made 206 million dollars in total At the Box Office-here, and in Europe. So, people who cut down this film are really not looking at the issue that if a movie made alot of money then alot of people went to go see it.
One last note:I say this in Good Faith, but Erika Christensen's performance was really nice, it too would have been awesome if she too would have won an Oscar(Runner up or as Best Actress) but she did not win one. It would have been historical, a young lady at the age of 18 i believe winning an Academy Award, it would have been exciting and refreshing news for the industry and for fans who watch the awards each year.
For now the Oscar has eluded her(Erika Christensen), and who knows when She will be back(in another super performance), and win it. Don't get me wrong, she has other great movies out there, but this one in particular brought her the recognition as an actress. Hoping to win the Oscar Award does not happen each year because competition is just so tight. Traffic is Recommended.
Regardless of what the critics say including all actors, all of them want to win the Oscar, and be part of movie history, and be recognized by the Academy that ones skills have been recognized as being simply the best-by the Elite in HollyWood California USA.
Movie Review: 'The drug is not in the doll, the drug is the doll'
Summary: 5 Stars
I have finally seen this film in it's entirety and I like to say that `Traffic' is a richly entertaining epic that recalls the great works of the 1970s, when directors like Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola engaged mass audiences with works of genuine substance. Soderbergh works on a larger canvass than he's ever done before, bouncing several characters and plot-lines against and off each other, so that images and themes rhyme and echo. Although the subject matter is drug trafficking, this is not an "issues" movie per se. Instead, it's a profoundly affecting dramatic thriller where the destructive forces of drugs cut across different sections of society.
Some will say that it takes too long, or that some of the scenes are a bit slow. But does everything go fast paced in real life? It just tries to sketch a realistic view of handling with drugs. And maybe there isn't a lot of action going on, but that's not the goal of the movie.
This film has an amazing ensemble cast where everybody is working at the top of their game. However, Benicio Del Toro definitely stands out with the breakthrough performance. I don't think it's accidental that the movie begins and ends with shots of him. He plays Javier Rodriguez, a Mexican police officer caught in a futile and corrupt system, and it's as compelling of a character as Michael Corleone. Del Toro is exceptionally relaxed and subtle, keeping his thoughts and feelings private from the other characters in the films, but sharing it with the camera. Del Toro navigates the audience through a world of impossible choices and moral corruption, quietly simmering with intense conflict just beneath the surface. Benicio's been an indie stalwart for years and this film shot his stock through the roof.
Michael Douglas is also terrific, adding another strong performance to his gallery of flawed men in power. He shows genuine fear and vulnerability in a harrowing scene in which he searches for his daughter in a drug dealer's den. I've never seen Erika Christensen before, but she makes an impressive debut. Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman are as loose, limber and spontaneous as ever, providing plenty of comic relief as well as keeping it real. Catherine Zeta-Jones takes a complete 180 from her past roles and admirably plays against her looks, appearing very pregnant while thrown into gritty surroundings. Dennis Quaid is appropriately slimy as a corrupt lawyer.
Anybody who is starved for a genuine piece of film making should breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy Soderbergh's engaging film.