☰

ZestSync

Human Traffic

Well cast, engagingly played and directed with a stylistic pedal to the metal , "Human Traffic" is a lot of energy adding up to very little. A kind of late-' 90s clubs-'n'-drugs "Trainspotting" Lite, writer-director Justin Kerrigan's first feature will mean a lot to a certain section of the British population under 30 and almost nothing to anyone else, especially auds in search of a point to all the raving. Fast, targeted playoff should yield reasonable local returns.

Well cast, engagingly played and directed with a stylistic pedal to the metal , “Human Traffic” is a lot of energy adding up to very little. A kind of late-‘ 90s clubs-‘n’-drugs “Trainspotting” Lite, writer-director Justin Kerrigan’s first feature will mean a lot to a certain section of the British population under 30 and almost nothing to anyone else, especially auds in search of a point to all the raving. Fast, targeted playoff should yield reasonable local returns.

Related Stories

Icons representing film, music, books and news being connected by AI nodes and lines VIP+

Generative AI & Licensing: A Special Report

Secret Level

'Secret Level' Director Tim Miller and Epic Games Execs Talk Hollywood's Relationship With Unreal Engine as Version 5.5 Launches

The fact that there is no point to the Ecstasy-popping,booze-fueled, expletive-laden protags’ lives is very much the point here. The nearest the lead character comes to espousing a philosophy of life is, “It’s an insane world, but I’m proud to be a part of it.” And the nearest the pic comes to taking a stance on drugs is at the end, when, as their pusher announces he’s kicking the habit, his pals point out that it’s not as if they’re going to do it forever. “We’ll soon get bored with it,” opines one.

Popular on Variety

Tale is told through the eyes of Jip (John Simm), who has a boring job in a jeans shop and looks forward to Friday nights and the subsequent 48 hours of getting totally trashed. His best buddy is Koop (Shaun Parkes), a black rapping deejay in a record shop whose major paranoia is his g.f., Nina (Nicola Reynolds) , who works in a burger chain and flirts with other guys. Nina’s best friend is Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington), a sharp-tongued Irish blonde who thinks all men are dorks. Supplying them all with chemicals, and so spaced out he’s in another solar system, is Moff (Danny Dyer), who lives with his upper-middle-class parents.

After Jip has intro’d all the characters to the audience, action kicks off on a Friday afternoon. Jip obsesses about his current case of “Mr. Floppy”; Nina ankles her tedious job, where she’s being harassed by her slimy manager; Koop visits his loony father in a home; and Lee (Dean Davies), Nina’s baby brother who is to join them this weekend, excitedly tells us, “I’m about to become part of the chemical generation.”

Half-hour in, group gets ready for some all-night clubbing, first meeting at a young persons’ bar to get their cylinders clicking — one of the movie’s best sequences, which, after some interior monologues, ends with Jip and Lulu leading the patrons of the joint in an alternative, Gen-X version of the National Anthem.

Thereon, action essentially follows the group through one set piece after another, as they get blasted out of their brains, assault respectability and get it on back home. As they later conduct a postmortem on the weekend, looking ahead to next Friday’s outing, the sole resolution of the picture is Jip’s breakthrough with his “Mr. Floppy” problem.

Though the movie is set in Cardiff, where Kerrigan hails from, it could take place in any big city for all the local color that’s painted (aside from a few Welsh accents). And aside from Moff, who’s so far over the top he’s a caricature , none of the principals shows the slightest side effects of all the drugs they’re meant to be taking. Like several of the psychedelic romps of the ’60s, “Human Traffic” is a hymn to the wastrel energy of youth, not a tutorial on the evils of a drug-based culture — at certain points the movie explicitly mocks such finger-wagging stances. (Kerrigan reportedly had trouble raising finance from the usual channels due to the pic’s lack of a moral payoff.)

And like “Trainspotting,” though with all sense of risk or danger removed, the humor is very British, middle-finger-in-the-air style. Pic makes no attempt to examine the phenomenon of clubbing or the beached lives of its characters, to become a contempo Brit version of “The Last Days of Disco.” Dialogue is strictly utilitarian, supported by four-letter crutches throughout.

As a pure technician, however, helmer Kerrigan, 25, has invention and energy to burn. Despite the vacuous dialogue and lack of any real plot or depth, movie rarely drags as he cannonballs among fantasy sequences, people stepping outside their characters to comment on the action, voiceovers, flashbacks and alternative realities. Thanks to the sparky cast and Kerrigan’s acute visual sense, much of pic is amusing, as long as you don’t stop to think about what he’s portraying. On an obvious budget, it’s a slick job.

Simm confidently leads a likable cast as Jip, and is notably supported by Pilkington, who brings a touch of class to the proceedings as the assured Lulu, and Parkes, who raps away entertainingly as Koop. Pic has no violence and none of the leads is remotely believable as the characters they’re meant to represent — but maybe that lack of substance is another “point” of the movie.

Jump to Comments

Human Traffic

(COMEDY --- BRITISH-IRISH)

  • Production: A Metrodome Distribution release (in U.K.) of an Irish Screen presentation of a Fruit Salad Films production. Produced by Allan Niblo, Emer McCourt. Executive producer, Renata S. Aly. Co-executive producers, Michael Wearing, Nigel Warren-Green, Kevin Menton. Directed, written by Justin Kerrigan.
  • Crew: Camera (Fujicolor), David Bennett; editor, Patrick Moore; music, Mathew Herbert, Rob Mellow; music supervisor, Pete Tong; production designer, Dave Buckingham; art director, Sue Ayton; costume designer, Claire Anderson; sound (Dolby Digital), Martyn Stevens; associate producers, Rupert Preston, Arthur Baker; assistant director, Emma Pounds; casting, Sue Jones, Gary Howe. Reviewed at Virgin Haymarket 1, London, June 7, 1999. Running time: 99 MIN.
  • With: Jip ..... John Simm Lulu ..... Lorraine Pilkington Koop ..... Shaun Parkes Moff ..... Danny Dyer Nina ..... Nicola Reynolds Lee ..... Dean Davies

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9mhnqFjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmigpaKur3nTq5ifnpmYenN5kGtnaWxlbX51fI4%3D

Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-09-25

<< Ice JJ Fish - Age, Family, Bio

HGTV's 'Home Town Kickstart' Was Filmed Across Six Locations in the U.S. >>