![]() ![]() ![]() In another fantasy scene, the director makes light of the health risks involved in using ecstasy, but later he portrays the massive bummer that is an ecstasy hangover-the depression, insomnia and the misery of the Sunday dining room table with uncomprehending parents. Like "Trainspotting," the film depicts the downside of the very drug culture it celebrates. He closes the deal by pointing out that just as a painter's death increases the price of his artworks, so too will the death of a gangsta up the value of his raps. Koop, who works in a music shop, sells an expensive hip-hop record by explaining that it was recorded by a posse of crackheads on death row. When "Human Traffic" is funny, it can be very funny. But a wizard's lecture on the politics of passing a joint is amusing. "Human Traffic" also poses another question: Will Kerrigan's next effort rely so heavily on fantasy sequences? The film is peppered with them, which suggests that the director has spent a lot of time contemplating early Woody Allen as well as the toilet scene of "Trainspotting." Not all of these flights of fancy work-the one in which Jip is assaulted by his boss is both tasteless and unfunny. The friends are one ticket short-can they all get into the club anyway? (This complication leads to a cameo by deejay Carl Cox, who plays a thuggish club owner.) Can Jip get over his sexual paranoia? Will Lulu ever find true love? The events of the film take place during a single weekend, and the assorted subplots are serviceable but mundane. We're gonna get more spaced out than Neil Armstrong ever did." "I'm gonna lose the plot on the dance floor. ![]() All that exists now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties I've got 48 hours off from the world," Jip announces late Friday afternoon. Surely, there are some genuinely happy ravers out there somewhere, but this group's drug-induced haze is about escape. And Nina (Nicola Reynolds), who works a deadening fast-food job, must contend with this obsessively jealous boyfriend. Aspiring deejay Koop (Shaun Parkes) has a father who is institutionalized, and he himself seems slightly unhinged: He can't stop obsessing over his girlfriend Nina's nonexistent infidelities. ![]() The unemployed Moff (Danny Dyer) is stuck at home with his parents, while Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington) has endured a string of awful boyfriends. Jip, whose aging mother makes her living as a prostitute, is horrified by his own inability to function sexually. And while the film does capture some of the spirit that characterizes rave culture, it also oversimplifies the phenomenon.įor example: Each of Kerrigan's characters has a reason for seeking a respite from real life. "Human Traffic" is wildly uneven-inventive and clever moments are interspersed with dull and predictable ones. This film aims to be a manifesto for the chemical generation, the hundreds of thousands of teenagers and young adults who live for the blissed-out community of the dance floor, a kinship facilitated by both intoxicating electronic dance music and ecstasy, the synthetic drug that induces euphoric feelings of empathy and love.ĭoes it succeed? Maybe a little. And as Jip (John Simm), the closest this ensemble piece has to a main character, begins a monologue justifying his nightclubbing lifestyle, this film starts to feel a lot like "Trainspotting," the enjoyable screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh's heroin chronicles.īut "Human Traffic" is not interested in sullen, withdrawn heroin addicts. It's a dazzling start to this debut effort by 25-year-old Welsh writer-director Justin Kerrigan, who has set the film in the industrial town of Cardiff, where he grew up. As Fatboy Slim's manic "Build It Up, Tear It Down" pulsates on the soundtrack, we see documentary footage of Europe raving: Thousands of happy hedonists at the Love Parade, Berlin's annual street techno fest, as well as British youths protesting their government's attempts to shutter illegal warehouse parties and outdoor raves. The opening sequence of the new comedy "Human Traffic" captures the exuberant energy of the rave scenes here, there and everywhere. The dance-music scene may be inching toward the mainstream here in the United States-the cover story of the latest Spin magazine is devoted to its deejays, dance floors and ecstasy high-but in Britain, the dance-driven rave scene has been the dominant youth culture for nearly a decade. Shaun Parks and John Simm in "Human Traffic." Life in the Fast Lane With The Chemical Generation ![]()
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