Human Traffic

The basics    

Human Traffic is a British film that was made in 1999. It is about youth culture in 90’s Britain, clubs, drugs, friendship and living for the weekend.

What is this film about?

The film stars John Simm who you would most likely know from the fantastic T.V series ‘Life on Mars’ and Danny Dyer from loads of terrible films (but in this one he is not that bad). The film starts out with a “fourth wall” breaking introduction to the group of misfit characters that you will grow to love over the 95 minutes of this film. A group of friends that the only thing that they seem to have in common is that they are all as messed up as each other.

We get to see what there mundane 9 to 5 life is like which is nothing too great. Going from a shop assistant, university student, working a fast food joint to just being jobless.  But this is not the point we care about and they don’t either, it’s the weekend that’s important. 

It’s Friday night and the group are going in to town, following them from a pub, to club, to house party, to the come down, to Sunday lunch and finally back in the pub on Sunday daytime. During this film we get to follow what they think, flagging up there paranoia’s, theirs views on Britain, sex, drugs, friendship and for a small part Star wars too.

My views on it

If you have never taken drugs before, by the end of this film you will be jonesing for a fix. Even if this film dose show the darker side to drugs with Paranoia, not being able to get it up, come downs,  losing a grip on reality and a with a hint to mental illness, somehow it still looks like a good idea. After this film is the only time that you will think to yourself ‘mmmm I wish I was back in the 90’s, had a crap job and was going out to a club on the weekend to drop some E, smoke a joint, and take a line.’

The film itself feels like a bit of a drug trip as well, as it keeps braking out of reality to show how robotic work can be or to teach us a lesson in spliffology. And it is this mixture of randomness with the plotline that makes you feel the highs and lows as if you have been dropping pills with the character in the film.  And I’ve  got to say that I love the classic Hollywood ending done in a British way (but I am not going to say what it is).      

This is a clever and stylised comedy that is about how to blow off steam on the weekend after the boring, mechanical weekday. This shows the awesome side to drugs and the negatives they have as well.

Favourite Quote  

Koop - ‘when the come down's out-way the good times, you know the party's over ‘

Rating  3/5 stars