Traffic Is Full Of Good Performances And Steven Soderbergh Brilliantly Weaves Together Its Several Storylines, Clusters Of Characters And Visual Styles Starring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. 14A. 147 min. Rating four 1/2 If Traffic, the brilliant new film from director Steven Soderbergh, can be classified as a message movie, then the message is this: The war on drugs is futile. Based on the British Channel 4 miniseries Traffik, Soderbergh's film uses parallel and intersecting stories to paint a bleak picture of narcotics use and abuse, while exposing the hypocrisy of corrupt law enforcement officers and righteous politicians who pursue policies that sound good on a sound bite, but have little hope for success on the front lines. [continues 552 words]
At first glance, the late U.S. President appears to be rolling a big fatty. He is, however, inhaling odeur d'herbe from an alleged seized shipment of marijuana. The photo-op finds its way into Grass, a hilarious documentary about marijuana made by Canadian director Ron Mann. The director likes to focus on subcultures, and his past films include Imagine the Sound, about the free-jazz movement of the 1960s, Poetry in Motion, a film profile of contemporary poets, and Comic Book Confidential, which examined the history of the comic book. [continues 183 words]
