THE AISLE SEAT - "GRIDLOCK'D"

by Mike McGranaghan

Last year, rapper/actor Tupac Shakur was brutally gunned down on the streets of Las Vegas. The killing set off a national debate: was Shakur a cultural prophet or just a hoodlum? Certainly his music touched the lives of millions of record buyers. But his personal life was by no means idyllic (he had been shot before, jailed for sexual assault, etc.). Upon his release from prison, he was photographed spitting on reporters. Say what you will about his music or his personality - you can't deny that Shakur had a real presence on screen. His work in movies such as Juice and Poetic Justice was solid and impressive. Now, in the months following his untimely death, we get to see his best acting work by far in the new film Gridlock'd.

Shakur plays Spoon, a young jazz musician/heroin junkie who lives with his best friend and fellow musician Stretch (Tim Roth). Stretch is also an addict, and the duo vow to kick the habit after their singer Cookie (Thandie Newton) accidentally overdoses one night. Although their intentions are good, getting sober is not easy. When they try to check themselves into a detox program, they begin a journey into the world of endless bureaucratic red tape. Social service workers shuffle them from building to building, making them fill out this form and that form. They want to get clean but the "system" doesn't want to allow them to do so.

Frustrated, Stretch and Spoon decide to get high one last time while they try to figure out how to get untangled from the red tape. In doing so, they incur the wrath of a drug dealer, and they are mistakenly accused of a murder they didn't commit. Still, with everything seeming to work against them, the addicts continue their quest to enter a detox.

One of the things I like most about Gridlock'd is that it offers a fresh view of the bureaucracy. Often in films, we see the protagonists lashing out at the social workers. In this movie, it's reversed. Social workers are portrayed as being stressed out by the boundaries of their own jobs; they take their frustration out on the very people they are supposed to serve. There's a terrific scene mid-way through where a welfare worker blows up at Stretch and Spoon because they want to go into a detox today, and he can't send them without the necessary paperwork, which will take a couple weeks to process. "Do you think we just sit around in here waiting for the day you finally decide to get clean?" he asks them.

There is no doubt that Gridlock'd is a grim little movie. It points out that the system often impedes on the recovery process. An addict needs treatment right away, but the system needs its own checks and balances in order to stay operational. Everyone gets frustrated in the process. And what happens to those addicts while they wait? Most likely they keep on using, or lose the willpower to seek help.

Shakur and Roth both deliver excellent performances in the film. Shakur, surprisingly, plays the more level-headed of the two. Spoon is a guy who wants to get on the straight-and- narrow, even though he knows it will be difficult. He tries to stay one step ahead of the system (the way he soothes that short-tempered social worker is a tribute to the character's intelligence and charisma). Roth - always an interesting actor - plays more of a loose cannon; Stretch has a knack for saying exactly the wrong thing to precisely the wrong person. Jumpy and kinetic, Roth creates a very believable addict.

Gridlock'd was written and directed by actor Vondie Curtis Hall, best known for his role as Dr. Hancock on Chicago Hope (he also plays the drug dealer in the film). Hall has a knack for finding humor amongst the despair. The situations Spoon and Stretch find themselves in are serious, but there is a certain humor in the way obstacles continually fall directly in their path. Hall gets electrifying performances from his entire cast, and his direction has an appropriately gritty feel. This is one of the most effective debut films in recent memory.

Perhaps best of all is the fact that Gridlock'd offers no easy answers (the final scene is one of such subtlety that you may not instantly catch its implications). And if Hall's point of view is critical of the social workers who are supposed to help people, it is also critical of its own characters who, like the man says, expect the system to convenience them at the drop of a hat. Of course not all social workers are drones (many are eager to help as best they can) and not all addicts are like Stretch and Spoon (their continued commitment in the face of obstacles is admirable). However, Gridlock'd suggests that nothing runs as smoothly as it should and the delays caused by red tape may help perpetuate the drug problem. It is a daring, provocative idea in an enjoyable and engrossing film.

( 1/2 out of four)