Gridlock'd

Last updated

Gridlock'd
Gridlockdposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
Written byVondie Curtis-Hall
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Bill Pope
Edited byChristopher Koefoed
Music by Stewart Copeland
Production
companies
Distributed by Gramercy Pictures
Release date
  • January 29, 1997 (1997-01-29)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$5.6 million

Gridlock'd is a 1997 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall, and starring Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Lucy Liu and Thandiwe Newton. It was the directorial debut of Curtis-Hall, who also has a small role in the film. The film's opening was relatively low, despite critical acclaim; its opening weekend netted only $2,678,372 and it finished with a little over $5.5 million. [1] Shakur died four months before the film's release.

Contents

The film focuses on two heroin addicts who decide to kick the habit, following the overdose of their bandmate. They must face encounters with the police and local criminals, while bureaucracy prevents them from entering a drug rehabilitation program.

Plot

Set in Detroit, Gridlock'd centers around heroin addicts Spoon, Stretch and Cookie. They are in a band – in the spoken word genre – called Eight Mile Road, with Cookie on lead vocals, Spoon on bass guitar and Stretch on piano. Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their habit after Cookie overdoses on her first hit. Throughout a disastrous day, the two addicts dodge police and local criminals while struggling with an apathetic government bureaucracy that thwarts their entrance to a drug rehabilitation program.

Cast

In addition, Bokeem Woodbine appears repeatedly –though uncredited –as drug dealer Mud, while D Reper is played by the film's writer and director, Vondie Curtis-Hall; Kasi Lemmons and Henry Hunter Hall, Curtis-Hall's wife and then-baby, respectively, appear briefly as the Madonna and Child.

Production

Development

Curtis-Hall drew from some of his own experiences growing up in Detroit to make the film. During his teenage years, Curtis-Hall was a guitarist and vocalist in Detroit's punk rock scene. During this time, he and his peers began using heroin, with Curtis-Hall recounting the drug "was really a competitive thing we did, to be accepted. In order to compete, we thought, we figured we needed the tools to compete with others that were pushing the edge, to play faster, write better songs and sing better. That meant using smack". [2]

Curtis-Hall had kicked the drug by the time he graduated high school in 1974, [2] saying, "One day my best friend, the bassist, and I were sitting around and decided that maybe we could actually play better if we weren't stoned all the time." [3] In the attempt to get clean, Curtis-Hall said that he and his friend sought assistance from public detoxification programs, but were constantly confronted with red tape. He said, "I was living at home and I didn’t want [my parents] to know about it. Because of that I had no address to list on the forms. My friend didn't have a Social Security card. We were like these two homeless kids, running through this maze. You have a small window of time, or you’ll never kick." [2] [3]

Casting and financing

Curtis-Hall said it wasn't easy to get the film financed because of its taboo subject of heroin, "and people were expecting it to be a real depressing movie about a couple of dope fiends." [3] He took the project to Live Entertainment, PolyGram Films and Def Pictures, a subsidiary of PolyGram. [2] At the time, PolyGram had just released Trainspotting and told Curtis-Hall, "'We can't do two movies about heroin'...Then Tupac's record company came up with the money and PolyGram turned around and said, 'Hey, we always liked this movie' [laughs]." [3]

Tim Roth requested to be in the film upon reading the script after the filming of Rob Roy . [2] Tupac was cast after Laurence Fishburne, the director's first choice, was not available. [2] The rapper was recommended to Curtis-Hall by Preston Holmes, the president of Def Pictures. [2] Said Curtis-Hall, "Pac had just gotten out of jail [after a 1995 sexual abuse conviction in New York] and no one wanted to touch him. But Preston, who had known Tupac since he was a child, said that he was a professional, and nothing like the perception Hollywood had of him. I met him, liked him, hooked him up with Tim, and there was immediate chemistry." [2] [3]

Soundtrack

YearAlbumPeak chart positionsCertifications
U.S.
1997 Gridlock'd 1

Release

Gridlock'd premiered on January 31, 1997, finishing at #10 at the box office in the United States and Canada for its opening weekend, and went on to a total gross of $5.6 million during its domestic run. [1] The film was released in the United Kingdom on May 30, 1997. [4]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 88% of 34 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. [5] The New York Times editor Janet Maslin praised Shakur's performance: "He played this part with an appealing mix of presence, confidence and humor". [6] Desson Howe, for the Washington Post , wrote, "Shakur and Roth, who seem born for these roles, are allowed to take charge – and have fun doing it". [7] USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and felt that Hall had not "latched onto a particularly original notion of city blight. But he knows how to mine the humor in such desperation". [8] Similarly, Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that Roth and Shakur "illuminate" a "movie of despair and desperation" with "gritty, goofy comic spirit". He gave the film three out of four stars and said, "This is grim material, but surprisingly entertaining, and it is more cause to mourn the recent death of Shakur, who gives his best performance". [9]

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Gridlock'd doesn't have the imaginative vision of a movie like Trainspotting , yet it's more literally true to the haphazard torpor of the junkie life than anything we've seen on screen since Drugstore Cowboy ... Curtis-Hall has caught the bottom-feeder enervation of heroin addiction." [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tupac Shakur</span> American rapper (1971–1996)

Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time. Academics regard him as one of the most influential music artists of the 20th century and a prominent political activist for Black America. In addition to his music career, Tupac also wrote poetry and starred in movies. Shakur is among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. His lyrical content has been noted for addressing social injustice, political issues, and the marginalization of other African-Americans, but he was also synonymous with gangsta rap and violent lyrics.

<i>Trainspotting</i> (film) 1996 film by Danny Boyle

Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy drama film directed by Danny Boyle, and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. Based on the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996.

<i>Trainspotting</i> (novel) 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh

Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, first published in 1993. It takes the form of a collection of short stories, written in either Scots, Scottish English or British English, revolving around various residents of Leith, Edinburgh, who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are effectively addictions. The novel is set in the late 1980s and has been described by The Sunday Times as "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent". The title is an ironic reference to the characters’ frequenting of the disused Leith Central railway station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Roth</span> English actor (born 1961)

Timothy Simon Roth is an English actor. He was among a group of prominent British actors known as the "Brit Pack".

<i>Menace II Society</i> 1993 film by the Hughes Brothers

Menace II Society is a 1993 American teen crime drama film directed by the Hughes Brothers in their directorial debut. Set in the Watts and Crenshaw neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the film follows the life of Caine Lawson and his close friends. It gained notoriety for its scenes of violence, profanity, and drug-related content, and also received critical acclaim for the performances of Turner, Jada Pinkett, and Larenz Tate, the direction, and its realistic portrayal of urban violence and powerful underlying messages.

<i>Passion Fish</i> 1992 film by John Sayles

Passion Fish is a 1992 American drama film written and directed by John Sayles. The film stars Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Vondie Curtis-Hall, David Strathairn, Leo Burmester, and Angela Bassett. It tells the story of a soap opera star (McDonnell), who after getting paralyzed in a car accident, is forced to return to her family home and rely upon a series of nurses, forcing each of them to leave her employment until one shows up guaranteed to stay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vondie Curtis-Hall</span> American actor and director

Vondie Curtis-Hall is an American actor, film director, and television director. As an actor, he is known for his role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope created by David E. Kelley and as Ben Urich in the Netflix TV series Daredevil. He wrote and directed the cult film Gridlock'd.

<i>Poetic Justice</i> (film) 1993 film directed by John Singleton

Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton, and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. The film follows Justice (Jackson), a poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend from gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck along with her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression.

Live Squad was an American hip hop group and production team from Hollis, Queens, New York consisting of brothers Stretch, Majesty and DJ K-Low, best known for their early collaborations with Tupac Shakur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bokeem Woodbine</span> American actor (born 1973)

Bokeem Woodbine is an American actor. In 1994, he portrayed Joshua, the main character's troubled brother, in Jason's Lyric. He won a Black Reel Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for his role as Kansas City mob enforcer Mike Milligan in the second season of Fargo. Woodbine also portrayed Daniel in season 2 of the WGN series Underground, Herman Schultz/Shocker in the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, and saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman in the Oscar-winning Ray Charles biopic Ray.

<i>The Basketball Diaries</i> (film) 1995 film by Scott Kalvert

The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American biographical crime drama film. The movie deals with drug addiction and its unfavorable outcome in lives of common people. Directed by Scott Kalvert in his feature directorial debut and based on an autobiographical novel by the same name written by Jim Carroll. It tells the story of Carroll's teenage years as a promising high school basketball player and writer who develops an addiction to heroin. Distributed by New Line Cinema, The Basketball Diaries stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll, along with Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, Ernie Hudson, Patrick McGaw, James Madio, Michael Imperioli, and Mark Wahlberg in supporting roles.

<i>Gang Related</i> 1997 film directed by Jim Kouf

Gang Related, alternatively known as Criminal Intent, is a 1997 American action crime film written and directed by Jim Kouf, and starring James Belushi, Tupac Shakur, Dennis Quaid, Lela Rochon, David Paymer and James Earl Jones. The film follows two corrupt cops who attempt to frame a homeless man (Quaid) for the murder of an undercover DEA agent that they themselves had actually killed.

<i>Gridlockd</i> (soundtrack) 1997 soundtrack album by various artists

Gridlock'd – The Soundtrack is the soundtrack to Vondie Curtis-Hall film Gridlock'd and was released on 28 January 1997 by Death Row Records and Interscope Records.

<i>Bullet</i> (1996 film) 1996 American crime drama film directed by Julien Temple

Bullet is a 1996 American crime film directed by Julien Temple, and starring Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur. The film's screenplay was written by Bruce Rubenstein and Rourke, under the pseudonym 'Sir' Eddie Cook. Rourke also serves as the film's music supervisor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stretch (rapper)</span> American rapper and record producer

Randy Walker, better known by his stage name Stretch, was an American rapper and record producer, working in Live Squad. In the early 1990s, he joined 2Pac's rap group Thug Life. The November 30, 1994, shooting of Shakur led to their split. On November 30, 1995, Walker was shot and killed at the age of 27.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Who Shot Ya?</span> 1995 song by the Notorious B.I.G.

"Who Shot Ya?" is a song by American rapper the Notorious B.I.G., backed by Sean Combs. Bad Boy Entertainment released it on February 21, 1995, on an alternate reissue of Wallace's single "Big Poppa/Warning". Its new B-side "Who Shot Ya", a revision of a track already issued earlier in 1995, was "controversial and hugely influential." Widely interpreted as a taunt at Tupac Shakur, the single provoked a "rap battle" between the two rappers, formerly friends.

<i>Skagboys</i> 2012 novel by Irvine Welsh

Skagboys is a 2012 novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is a prequel to his 1993 novel Trainspotting, and its 2002 sequel Porno. It follows the earlier lives of characters Renton and Sick Boy as they first descend into heroin addiction.

<i>Requiem for a Dream</i> 2000 American psychological drama film by Darren Aronofsky

Requiem for a Dream is a 2000 American psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher McDonald, and Marlon Wayans. It is based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr., with whom Aronofsky wrote the screenplay. The film depicts four characters affected by drug addiction and how it alters their physical and emotional states. Their addictions cause them to become imprisoned in a world of delusion and desperation. As the film progresses, each character deteriorates, and their delusions are shattered by the harsh reality of their situations, resulting in catastrophe.

<i>Tupac: A Thug Life</i> Anthology and collection of writings about Tupac Shakur

Tupac: A Thug Life is an anthology and collection of writings on the rapper Tupac Shakur released in 2005 by Plexus Publishing in the UK. The book was edited by Sam Brown with a foreword by music journalist Kris Ex. The title was taken from a quote by Shakur, who once said, "I didn't choose the thug life; the thug life chose me."

Henry Hunter Hall is an American actor.

References

  1. 1 2 "Gridlock'd". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Coker, Cheo Hodari (January 29, 1997). "For Writer-Director, Film Reflects a Past Gridlock of His Own". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on June 24, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Upton, Sam (July 1997). ""Smack is a bit of a taboo subject over here..."". Select : 113. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Gridlock'd". dvd-fever.co.uk. January 17, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Gridlock'd". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved February 7, 2023. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. ↑ Maslin, Janet (January 29, 1997). "And You Thought Recovery Was Serious Business" . The New York Times . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ Howe, Desmond (January 31, 1997). "'Gridlock'd': Surprisingly Footloose". The Washington Post . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  8. ↑ Wloszczyna, Susan (January 29, 1997). "Late Rapper and Roth Animate Gridlock'd". USA Today .
  9. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 31, 1997). "Gridlock'd". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved May 15, 2021– via RogerEbert.com.
  10. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (January 31, 1997). "Gridlock'd". Entertainment Weekly . Time . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.