`GRIDLOCK'D' MOVES ON POWER OF BUDDIES.Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic Stretching the envelope on subject matter is one of the things independent movies can do best, and when you're watching a scrappy urban comedy about the merry mishaps of two heroin junkies trying to kick the habit, you know you're not in Kansas anymore. ``Gridlock'd'' was originally intended as a truly independent exercise. The directing and screenwriting debut of actor Vondie Curtis-Hall (``Passion Fish,'' TV's ``Chicago Hope''), it was based on his own checkered past as a youth in Detroit and designed to be shot for about $100,000. But the screenplay and the urban soundtrack possibilities attracted interest, and, before long, it had turned into a $5 million project for PolyGram with Tim Roth and actor/rapper Tupac Shakur set to star. You might not expect the movie's situation to yield a lot of laughs, but it actually does. After all, who hasn't wanted to go ballistic while waiting in line for government services? Roth and Shakur set the mood with an amiable chemistry that makes it feel more like ``Crosby and Hope on the Skids'' than the kind of downward-spiral urban tragedy we usually encounter. Shakur (``Juice,'' ``Poetic Justice'') lets his mellower, sweeter side shine, making the perfect counterbalance to Roth's ultra-wired, top-blowing nut case nut case n. Slang A person regarded as eccentric or crazy. Noun 1. nut case - a whimsically eccentric person crackpot, fruitcake, screwball, crank, nut . Together, they achieve a kind of cockeyed charm that makes the movie, for all its rawness, more of a buddy picture about a bond between down-and-outers than a searing sear 1 v. seared, sear·ing, sears v.tr. 1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of with or as if with a hot instrument. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. social study. Roth and Shakur play Stretch and Spoon, who, along with roommate Cookie (Thandie Newton Thandiwe Adjewa "Thandie" Newton (born on November 6, 1972 in Zambia) is an English BAFTA Award-winning actress.[2] Biography Early life Newton was born in Zambia, to a Zimbabwean health-care worker, Nyasha[3][4] of ``Jefferson in Paris'' and ``The Journey of August King''), are jazz musicians This is a list of jazz musicians on whom Wikipedia has articles. Some of the most notable jazz musicians
When Cookie winds up in critical condition from an overdose, the boys decide their luck may be running out and vow to kick the habit. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they soon find out. Before long, they're enmeshed en·mesh also im·mesh tr.v. en·meshed, en·mesh·ing, en·mesh·es To entangle, involve, or catch in or as if in a mesh. See Synonyms at catch. in a maze of government Catch-22s, where every program is inaccessible unless they qualify for a previous program. In what is perhaps the movie's funniest scene, Shakur implores his buddy to stab him so he can qualify for emergency Medicaid, and Roth ends up jabbing at him with a penknife in an inept attempt to break his skin while Shakur howls. Roth (``Pulp Fiction,'' ``Rob Roy'') pulls off the scene with gleeful glee·ful adj. Full of jubilant delight; joyful. glee  ful·ly adv.glee panache, and Curtis-Hall directs with a keen appreciation of the pain and absurdity that makes life on the lower rungs so laughable. The inspiration in ``Gridlock'd'' isn't necessarily in the script - it sags when it relies on tired plot devices, such as keeping the boys on the run from cops and gangsters (one of the bad guys is played by Curtis-Hall). But at its best, it figures out what's funny in a bleak situation and puts it over with ingratiating in·gra·ti·at·ing adj. 1. Pleasing; agreeable: "Reading requires an effort.... Print is not as ingratiating as television" Robert MacNeil. 2. irony. Curtis-Hall directs with a verve and visual flair that surpasses the material, and Roth and Shakur, who, sadly, will never be a comedy team again, take the material to yet another level. ``Gridlock'd'' was among Shakur's last film roles before his September shooting death. The movie's soundtrack, a mix of r&b, trip hop Trip hop (also known as the Bristol sound or Bristol acid rap) is a term coined by music journalist Andy Pemberton in the UK magazine Mixmag to describe the hip hop instrumental "In/Flux", a 1993 single by DJ Shadow, and other similar tracks released on the , jazz and spoken word, features a previously unreleased track co-written and performed by Shakur, ``Never Had a Friend Like Me.'' THE FACTS The film: ``Gridlock'd'' (R; language, violence, drug use). The stars: Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth and Thandie Newton. Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall. Produced by Damon Jones
Running time: One hour, 27 minutes. Playing: Mann National, Westwood; Magic Johnson Theaters, Baldwin Hills. Our rating: Three Stars. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1) Tupac Shakur, left, and Tim Roth play jazz musicians-turned-junkies who get the bureaucratic runaround run·a·round n. 1. Informal Deception, usually in the form of evasive excuses. 2. Printing Type set in a column narrower than the body of the text, as on either side of a picture. when they try to enter a government detox de·tox v. To subject to detoxification. n. A section of a hospital or clinic in which patients are detoxified. program in ``Gridlock'd.'' (2) ``Gridlock'd'' writer-director Vondie Curtis-Hall, foreground, also plays one of the bad guys in the Gramercy Pictures release. |
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