MUBI

Soderbergh does a solid job of interweaving three storylines, much of the acting is fantastic, and the look of the film is impressive (although I do feel that the use of sepia for all the Mexican scenes was heavy-handed and even a bit racist). But the flaws in this film are gaping. For one thing, despite the intricate story, there’s no accounting of how the drug trade affects people of color in the U.S. The takeaway then becomes “we’re waging a(n unwinnable) war on drugs in order to save our (White) children.” I realize this is just one story – well three-in-one – but the impact of hard drugs in our culture hits lower-class Blacks more than the upper-middle class Whites who are the core of the film. I think this is a pretty big omission for a movie that lectures so much about the other aspects of the drug war such as law enforcement and international relations. The one moment in which the effect of drugs on the Black population is addressed, it comes from the prep school White boy who revels in educating the nation’s Drug Czar. Which is my other problem with Soderbergh’s Traffic – too often the points made are delivered so bluntly that I felt like I was watching an after-school special. Nine years ago this style of intertwined storytelling was more novel and the “War on Drugs” was a more prominent national preoccupation. Maybe last decade this was groundbreaking, but watching it in 2009, my expectations were higher.

Traffic is so inventive and thought provoking it will remain one of America’s roughest and creative classics. each scene transends a specific feeling and compliments the last scene in a profoundly visual way. Soderberg is a genius as director/cinematographer. I could never forget this film no matter how hard I try. Why would any one? The films ensamble cast is astonishingly professional. Benincio Del Toro’s and Micheal Douglas’ preformances give a much needed kick to the mind that will leave you numb long after the final images of a childrens baseball game have been shown.

@ Juan C.P. It wasn’t as risky as it should have been. The screenplay did have seem to have the limitations of pay cable procedurals. Yet this American cliché was the most original and visually exciting of them in a while and it’s a showcase of extraordinary acting talent. Sometimes clichés work and in this case it’s a solid American entertainment. I know that as a kid in High School ‘Traffic’ opened up my innocent suburbanite eyes.

As far as after school specials go, this one’s the best so far.