Traffic

It’s Memorial Day in the United States, but instead of covering a bloody war flick, we decided to talk about the (failed) War On Drugs. Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winner is complicated, complex, even confusing and it’s certainly not afraid to tread a new path with its style and look. The experimental director beautifully balances the 3 main stories in Stephen Gaghan’s script, even if he doesn’t shoot those stories particularly well. Twenty years on, this remains an unappealing-looking picture. Bev took issue with that and also with certain elements of the Catherine Zeta-Jones & Erika Christensen storylines (especially the moralizing). Ryan has to confess to some shoddy memories of Traffic’s great (sometimes deleted) scenes we’ve discussed in prior episodes because they don’t actually exist. (!) The Next 196 Project hacks into all those details in this story of rats & traitors, so settle in for over an hour of our yibber yab about one of the primo drug movies. Well, Actually: Stephen Mirrione’s name DOES seem to have an “E” sound at the end (rhymes with “baloney”). Also, Requiem For A Dream got ***1/2 from Roger Ebert (not quite ****). Also also, Brian Eno’s song is called “An Ending (Ascent)“. You’d be helped to make that run over the border with your highly illegal drugs by filling up with Sparkplug Coffee. Using our promo code (“top100project”) will net you a 20% discount when you’re ready to pay. Twi-twi-twits? Yup. @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis Our website is top100project.com Next week, we exchange thoughts about the crazy Ah-nuld sci-fi action flick Total Recall