st. john simm, lorraine pilkington, shaun parkes, danny dyer, nicola reynolds, dean davies
The flyers: "A British cult classic: think 'Trainspotting' but cooler!" (IF Magazine)... "This year's hottest movie" (The Observer)... "Coolest film of the millennium" (Channel[V]).... Dance and underground radio station DJs are talking about it, the first 200 people in CJ Bolland's gig received free double passes, and finally... the weekend has landed.
The weekend started with a blindingly bad Friday night with a handful of not-so-close friends to the cinema to watch Stigmata (aaah! don't disturb my Catholic sensibilities!). And there she is, my chosen stepsister cum e-supplier, on her way to watch Human Traffic with her (real, not chosen) sister. The rest of the night was trippy with fatigue and boredom, and Goldie concert the next night redeemed 3 of the most down and boring weeks of the year so far. I was waiting to get sorted...
Finally I managed to arrange with another bunch of friends to watch Human Traffic, and although the weekend had passed, as the movie started, we felt like another weekend had started for us! 3:33pm, Friday afternoon, to be exact. So the weekend has landed for us, and for Jip, Lulu, Koop, Moff and Nina, our chosen for-our-eyes-only family. We spent that afternoon following the weekend that the five hip, funny and down-to-earth fellow 20-year-olds had in their hometown of Cardiff, England.
Two of them have mundane jobs, one at a department store, the other at a snack bar, one is in college, one unemployed, and another one has a cool job selling vinyl to diehard music fans and wannabes. Mundane job? Uni? Unemployed? Most of us would tick at least one of them. I tick all three. Whatever we are, when it comes to weekends, we just want to have fun. So all seven of us joined the ride, and when the movie ended, we walked out of the cinema silent, there was nothing else we had to communicate. Oh well, all except this one guy who complained, "So what the hell was that movie about? just that?" yada yada yada. Of course, it's a movie about nothing. Just like Seinfeld. So shuddup dahling, go home and sleep, whatever.
Shifting in and out of reality, visual metaphors, and inner dialogue are used often in this movie, and apparently they are also heavily used in Ally McSqueal, but hey, we don't mind, as long as it makes the story more entertaining. Yup, fun is all there is to this movie, nothing so deep and meaningful, no hard feelings. The soundtrack is also fab, a double CD with bits of dialogues from various characters and great tracks from CJ Bolland, Fatboy Slim, Jacknife Lee, Death in Vegas, Dilinja and Orbital on the first CD, and a full Pete Tong mix on the second. The spirit of the movie is obviously brought by CJ Bolland's "It ain't gonna be me", and probably after this movie that tune is going to be a weekend anthem.
Cool? Funny? Buzzing? Yeah, bruvver! However, "Cooler than Trainspotting"? No way. Trainspotting is more original and darker. Perhaps it's because the kids in this movie use soft drugs and have fun, while the guys in Trainspotting use hard drugs and struggle through life? Both flicks are rated R, but I think Human Traffic should only be rated M or MA. In Trainspotting, Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) calls his mates his so-called friends, while here Jip's friends are his chosen family. Lulu wants a world where the drugs are free and every sex guarantees an orgasm, I only want a world where everyday is weekend, and I vow to follow wherever the human traffic leads me.
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