Post by The Narrator Returns on Jun 30, 2013 16:46:37 GMT -6
Steven Soderbergh had already come back by the time Traffic was released. Out of Sight and The Limey were critical hits. Erin Brockovich had proved he could do a crowd-pleaser like no one’s business. But he truly convinced the skeptics that he was back with Traffic. Working from the outline of the British miniseries Traffik, Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) won much acclaim, making numerous top-ten lists and winning four Oscars, for Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. But how does this story about drugs hold up? Is it an ambitious masterwork, or another bloated entry in the “everyone is connected” sweepstakes?
The film is made up of several different storylines, which sometimes interact, and other times. But the main thread throughout the film is a look at drugs from many different perspectives. With these different perspectives, Soderbergh uses a different color scheme for each one. The first storyline we see, the tale of a cop trying to do the right thing in Mexico, is shot in very brown, very blown-out tones. The tale of the drug czar and his drug-abusing daughter is covered in a blue tint. And the scenes in San Diego with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, and Luis Guzman are shot in very warm, natural summer tones. This approach wasn’t anything new for Soderbergh (he did the same for The Underneath and Out of Sight), but this is certainly the farthest he’s gone with it, and it helps keep the audience aware of where they are. The best scenes in the film undoubtedly belong to the Mexico storyline, where Javier (Benicio del Toro, whole performance here deservedly won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) struggles with his ethics as he does deeds for General Salazar, an official who says he wants to eliminate drug production, but has other plans. This story looks at drugs as a business, where impossibly wealthy cartels go to extraordinary lengths to sabotage police efforts and rival cartels, while the police can only stand back and watch. The next story is of Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), the newly-elected drug czar who finds out that his daughter (Erika Christensen) has been using cocaine as well as freebasing, and even after he and his wife (Amy Irving) try and rehabilitate, she goes back to old habits. This could have the trappings of an after-school special (The Menace at Home: It Can Happen to Anyone), but Soderbergh’s understated direction doesn’t allow it to get melodramatic, and instead lets it unfold in a natural manner. This story shows drugs as they affect their users, and how politicians react to them. The final story is really two-in-one, with one part focusing on DEA agents Montel (Cheadle) and Ray (Guzman), and how they get a high-level dealer (Miguel Ferrer) to reveal the big boss in charge. The boss is Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer), wife of Helen (Zeta-Jones), and Carlos gets arrested, leaving Helen alone and having to deal with death threats to her child. These stories look at drugs as a criminal venture, and how they can destroy families.
As I said before, Soderbergh doesn’t allow these stories to grow melodramatic or over-the-top. Just look at the scenes where Caroline Wakefield goes to rehab for her addiction. In a lesser film, it would be a showcase where Caroline details the exact reasons for her drug use, and how she just wants to be loved, and all that crap. Instead, Caroline seems bored, and she gives the most half-hearted explanation possible, where the most we get is that she’s “angry.” This was the second time Soderbergh shot a film himself (the first being Schizopolis), and he opts for gritty realism here, most so in the Mexico sequences (he’s admitted to be inspired by the work of Ken Loach when it came to the photography of the film). It’s a very unique-looking film, and the handheld feel doesn’t distract from the stories at hand, but instead enhances them. Of course, Gaghan’s script does the final product plenty of favors as well, weaving an engrossing tale of drugs from all different angles. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a damn important one, arguably the greatest movie about drugs ever made. And it should’ve won Best Picture, Ridley Scott be damned.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Masterpiece
The Soderbergh Players: Lots of them. Benicio del Toro would later play Che Guevara in Soderbergh’s two-part biopic Che. Michael Douglas would play another government employee in Haywire, and he plays Liberace in Behind the Candelabra. Don Cheadle previously played “Snoopy” Miller in Out of Sight, and would later play Basher in all three Ocean’s movies. Luis Guzman had also appeared in Out of Sight, and he also played Terence Stamp’s partner in The Limey. Catherine Zeta-Jones would later play Brad Pitt’s love interest in Ocean’s Twelve and Rooney Mara’s psychiatrist and love interest (because Channing Tatum is not an acceptable love interest for anyone) in Side Effects. Topher Grace (as Caroline’s annoying, but on purpose this time, boyfriend Seth, who introduces her to freebasing) delivers his best performance here, so he repaid the favor to Soderbergh by appearing as a clueless version of himself in the first two Ocean’s movies (his self-destructive version of himself in Twelve is one of the film’s saving graces). Albert Finney makes an appearance as the White House Chief of Staff, and the same year, he played Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich (getting an Oscar nom for his fantastic deadpan to Julia Roberts’ brash attitude). John Slattery makes a small appearance, and he would later play James Carville’s aid in Soderbergh’s TV docudrama K Street (which may have been inspired by the scene in Traffic where many political figures play themselves and talk to the drug czar about the drug war). Viola Davis plays a social worker, and she previously played a small role in Out of Sight. She would later be bumped up to major supporting player in Solaris. And I haven’t even gotten to the cameos by Mike Malone (T. Azimuth Schwitters, Bank Customer in Out of Sight) and David Jensen (Elmo Oxygen, Satellite Dish Installer in The Underneath) late in the film.
Like I said, this was the second time Soderbergh shot a film himself, but the first time under the pseudonym Peter Andrews. Stephen Mirrione would edit his first Soderbergh film (he would later edit all three Ocean’s movies, The Informant!, and Contagion), and Cliff Martinez scored his eighth Soderbergh film, after taking a break in favor of Thomas Newman for Erin Brockovich. Interestingly, this is the first Soderbergh film not produced by John Hardy, but it wouldn’t be his last, since he produced the first two Ocean’s movies.
The film is made up of several different storylines, which sometimes interact, and other times. But the main thread throughout the film is a look at drugs from many different perspectives. With these different perspectives, Soderbergh uses a different color scheme for each one. The first storyline we see, the tale of a cop trying to do the right thing in Mexico, is shot in very brown, very blown-out tones. The tale of the drug czar and his drug-abusing daughter is covered in a blue tint. And the scenes in San Diego with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, and Luis Guzman are shot in very warm, natural summer tones. This approach wasn’t anything new for Soderbergh (he did the same for The Underneath and Out of Sight), but this is certainly the farthest he’s gone with it, and it helps keep the audience aware of where they are. The best scenes in the film undoubtedly belong to the Mexico storyline, where Javier (Benicio del Toro, whole performance here deservedly won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) struggles with his ethics as he does deeds for General Salazar, an official who says he wants to eliminate drug production, but has other plans. This story looks at drugs as a business, where impossibly wealthy cartels go to extraordinary lengths to sabotage police efforts and rival cartels, while the police can only stand back and watch. The next story is of Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), the newly-elected drug czar who finds out that his daughter (Erika Christensen) has been using cocaine as well as freebasing, and even after he and his wife (Amy Irving) try and rehabilitate, she goes back to old habits. This could have the trappings of an after-school special (The Menace at Home: It Can Happen to Anyone), but Soderbergh’s understated direction doesn’t allow it to get melodramatic, and instead lets it unfold in a natural manner. This story shows drugs as they affect their users, and how politicians react to them. The final story is really two-in-one, with one part focusing on DEA agents Montel (Cheadle) and Ray (Guzman), and how they get a high-level dealer (Miguel Ferrer) to reveal the big boss in charge. The boss is Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer), wife of Helen (Zeta-Jones), and Carlos gets arrested, leaving Helen alone and having to deal with death threats to her child. These stories look at drugs as a criminal venture, and how they can destroy families.
As I said before, Soderbergh doesn’t allow these stories to grow melodramatic or over-the-top. Just look at the scenes where Caroline Wakefield goes to rehab for her addiction. In a lesser film, it would be a showcase where Caroline details the exact reasons for her drug use, and how she just wants to be loved, and all that crap. Instead, Caroline seems bored, and she gives the most half-hearted explanation possible, where the most we get is that she’s “angry.” This was the second time Soderbergh shot a film himself (the first being Schizopolis), and he opts for gritty realism here, most so in the Mexico sequences (he’s admitted to be inspired by the work of Ken Loach when it came to the photography of the film). It’s a very unique-looking film, and the handheld feel doesn’t distract from the stories at hand, but instead enhances them. Of course, Gaghan’s script does the final product plenty of favors as well, weaving an engrossing tale of drugs from all different angles. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a damn important one, arguably the greatest movie about drugs ever made. And it should’ve won Best Picture, Ridley Scott be damned.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Masterpiece
The Soderbergh Players: Lots of them. Benicio del Toro would later play Che Guevara in Soderbergh’s two-part biopic Che. Michael Douglas would play another government employee in Haywire, and he plays Liberace in Behind the Candelabra. Don Cheadle previously played “Snoopy” Miller in Out of Sight, and would later play Basher in all three Ocean’s movies. Luis Guzman had also appeared in Out of Sight, and he also played Terence Stamp’s partner in The Limey. Catherine Zeta-Jones would later play Brad Pitt’s love interest in Ocean’s Twelve and Rooney Mara’s psychiatrist and love interest (because Channing Tatum is not an acceptable love interest for anyone) in Side Effects. Topher Grace (as Caroline’s annoying, but on purpose this time, boyfriend Seth, who introduces her to freebasing) delivers his best performance here, so he repaid the favor to Soderbergh by appearing as a clueless version of himself in the first two Ocean’s movies (his self-destructive version of himself in Twelve is one of the film’s saving graces). Albert Finney makes an appearance as the White House Chief of Staff, and the same year, he played Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich (getting an Oscar nom for his fantastic deadpan to Julia Roberts’ brash attitude). John Slattery makes a small appearance, and he would later play James Carville’s aid in Soderbergh’s TV docudrama K Street (which may have been inspired by the scene in Traffic where many political figures play themselves and talk to the drug czar about the drug war). Viola Davis plays a social worker, and she previously played a small role in Out of Sight. She would later be bumped up to major supporting player in Solaris. And I haven’t even gotten to the cameos by Mike Malone (T. Azimuth Schwitters, Bank Customer in Out of Sight) and David Jensen (Elmo Oxygen, Satellite Dish Installer in The Underneath) late in the film.
Like I said, this was the second time Soderbergh shot a film himself, but the first time under the pseudonym Peter Andrews. Stephen Mirrione would edit his first Soderbergh film (he would later edit all three Ocean’s movies, The Informant!, and Contagion), and Cliff Martinez scored his eighth Soderbergh film, after taking a break in favor of Thomas Newman for Erin Brockovich. Interestingly, this is the first Soderbergh film not produced by John Hardy, but it wouldn’t be his last, since he produced the first two Ocean’s movies.