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Gridlock'D

1997, Movie, R, 90 mins

Gridlock'D: Review

GRIDLOCK'D
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A relentlessly stylish, very dark comedy about two hopheads and their misadventures in the Kafka-esque land of social services. Junkie performance artists Stretch and Spoon (Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur) do a jazz-inflected spoken-word act with Spoon's slinky English girlfriend, Cookie (Thandie Newton), and the trio live together in the kind of rundown loft that makes decay and ruin look like the last word in home design. Curious to see what the boys are so keen on, Cookie shoots up on New Year's Eve and promptly ODs, which they take as a sign that they need to kick. This turns out to be easier said than done: Spoon and Stretch are rebuffed at every turn, put through tests and interviews, shunted from clinic to emergency room to office and back, condescended to, sworn at and ignored. Anyone who's ever tried to negotiate a government bureaucracy can relate to their mounting frustration and eventual despair. Wiry transplanted Brit Roth -- who's carved himself an indie niche playing lowlife Yanks -- does his usual shtick, but the late gangsta rapper is a poignant surprise: His Spoon is unexpectedly introspective and vulnerable. Seen mostly in flashback, Newton is simultaneously coarse and glamorous, sharp-tongued, pretentious, smart and altogether too good for Spoon, Stretch and this world generally -- at least, you know that's the way she sees it. In all, an auspicious debut for actor turned writer/director Vondie Curtis Hall. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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