Review

There's a sarcastic phrase people use here in the UK that goes, "How very different from the home life of our own dear Queen!" It definitely applies to this movie! Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth play two small-time drug-addled crooks who have a bad experience, so they decide to get clean. They're completely sincere and determined to do it, but the film is about how difficult it is, in practical terms, to get off drugs in today's USA. Despite all the political hype and the government programmes and the well-meaning organisations, when a guy actually walks in off the street and says 'Get Me Off Drugs', he faces a bewildering maze of stifling bureaucracy and indifferent public officials which seems designed to set him straight back on the cycle of despair.

So the film is sometimes frustrating to watch. It's grim in parts too. But it's also very funny. Tim Roth is as good as ever, but Shakur is a revelation. His earlier films were not so good, but here (his final movie before being murdered) he seemed to hit a groove. The chemistry between the two leads is great. The film is really about friendship as much as anything else.

Gridlocked is different to any film you've ever seen. At 91 minutes it doesn't out-stay its welcome, and the pacy direction keeps it moving along nicely. It's not a classic but it is well worth seeing.