GRIDLOCK'D

US, 1996, 91 minutes, Colour.
Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Thandie Newton, Howard Hesseman, John Sayles.
Directed by Vondie Curtis Hall.

Gridlock'd is a particularly American day - both comic and serious - focusing on two heroin addicts who decide that they want to give up on the drugs, but who are also seeking help for the third member of their music poetry trio who has tried heroin for the first time and gone into coma. Many commentators linked this film to the 1995 Scottish film, Trainspotting, with its grim picture of the drug world yet permeated by the comic aspects.

The film focuses on Tim Roth as Stretch and Tupac Shakur (the rap artist and actor who was violently killed soon after the making of this film). It is suggested by reviewers that they are like the typical American teams of comedy including Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello and Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber. Thandie Newton (Flirting, Leading Man, Jefferson in Paris) is the third member of the trio. Included in the supporting cast are guest performances from Elizabeth Pena as the sour admissions person (playing under the name Elizabeth Anne Dickinson), John Sales as one of the cops and Howard Hesseman as the blind man in the office. The film was written and directed by actor Vondie Curtis Hall (E.R., Romeo and Juliet) - he also acts as the murderous villain of the film, D - Reper.

Tupac Shakur has an easy screen presence and Tim Roth does yet another variation on his down-and-out types (from his time at home in England in films like The Hit, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover to his American films from Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, No Way Home). He is skilled at this performance but has done it many times.

The film takes the couple through Detroit during the day, the frustrations of the bureaucracy in America, the reality of drug dealers and criminals pursuing them, the role of the police. (One reviewer remarked that it was unusual for such government offices to be open on New Year's Day!)

1. Impact of the film? The serious aspects of addicts and their trying to get medical help, their being foisted to other departments, victims of bureaucracy? The comic elements as the deadpan trio bounce off each other, have comic adventures in the city, experience frustration? How well did the two elements combine?

2. The writing and direction of Vondie Curtis Hall? The grunge aspects of the story and characters? Tough and brutal? Flair for American ironic comedy? His own performance as the villain?

3. The title and its implications of blocked traffic? Bureaucracy blocking the progress of the two protagonists?

4. The New Year's Day setting? The club, the grungy apartments, the streets, the dealers, the institutions? The ugly aspects of the American cities? Detroit?

5. The strength and screen presence of the stars? Their previous performances and comparisons? Working well on each other? The guest supporting appearances?

6. The background of the drug culture in the US? Audience response to the drugs? People on the streets? Heroin addicts? Means for coping with addiction? Programs? Possible success or not?

7. The opening of the film, New Year's Eve, the performance? Cookie and her singing? Stretch and spoon and their playing? Cookie taking the drugs and going into coma? The men's concern?

8. The morning after? The decisions to go off the drugs? Motives, pressures? Stretch and his inability to make decisions? Spoon and the leadership?

9. The effect of the day on each of them? The film tracing the detail of the day, the frustration, the bureaucracy, its effect? The encounters?

10. The dealer, the drugs? Stretch and his taking them, one last time? Spoon's reaction? The pursuit by D - Reper? The potential violence, the clash on the streets, the police coming, D - Reper going in the car? The two men under suspicion?

11. The police, characters - with the touch of humour? The reaction to the two men? Their becoming suspicious and later following them?

12. The bureaucracy, the various personalities? The cranky woman behind the counter? The information, going from building to building, department to department? The queues? The desperate time? The old blind man and his grievances? His contribution to the theme?

13. Life in the streets, the dangers, the drugs? The ordinariness of the grungy streets of the city?

14. The violence, the shooting? The effect on Stretch? The discussions about the stabbing? The decision that the only way to get treatment was to go to the emergency ward? The humour about Stretch having to stab Spoon?

15. The emergence that Spoon had AIDS? Not thinking about it? A reason for going to the emergency?

16. Cookie and her recovery, the phone call and the answering machine? The day's end for the two men? What had they achieved? The possibilities of a future? The possibilities of their actually performing together?

17. The overall effect of this kind of film? For a younger audience and their first-hand experience of this kind of world? For an older audience and their tendency to disapprove of this kind of behaviour?