Gridlock'd

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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
  • 1996 (1996)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$5.6 million

Gridlock'd is a 1996 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall and starring Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Lucy Liu, and Thandie 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]

Contents

The film paid tribute to star Tupac Shakur, who was murdered four months prior to the film's release.

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.

Background

It's largely autobiographical, with a lot of it coming from the time when I was a teenager in Detroit, playing guitar and singing in bands. Everybody was doing drugs. That was the way we thought we could play faster guitar, write better songs ... 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. Next day, we went to try and get into rehab. We were doing a bit of everything and were both sixteen, living with our folks, so we couldn't give our address in case they got to know about what we were doing. So we ended up wandering around from place to place, no one giving us any help. I remembered that when it came to writing my first movie.

— Vondie Curtis-Hall [2]

Production

It wasn't that easy because it was about smack, which is a bit of a taboo subject here. And people were expecting it to be a real depressing movie about a couple of dope fiends ... Then PolyGram had just put Trainspotting out and were like, 'We can't do two movies about heroin.' I didn't know anything about Trainspotting. It didn't mean shit to me ... It's like saying you can't do two romantic comedies. Then Tupac's record company came up with the money and PolyGram turned around and said, 'Hey, we always liked this movie' (laughs).

That's the way it usually goes in Hollywood. Tim was doing Rob Roy in Scotland when I sent him the script. He read it on the plane back and got on board straight away. It was either him or Gary Oldman. It took about another six months to get Tupac because he'd just got out of jail and nobody wanted to touch him.

But there was this one company that really wanted to do the film with Tupac and, once they okayed it, things got a little easier. But he wasn't the first choice ... Larry Fishburne wanted to do it, but we couldn't afford him. I can't see anybody else in the movie now apart from Tupac. He and Tim are so perfect together.

— Vondie Curtis-Hall [2]

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; Curtis-Hall's wife and then-baby, Kasi Lemmons and Henry Hunter Hall, appear briefly as the Madonna and Child.

Soundtrack

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

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 88% of 34 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. [3]

The New York Times editor Janet Maslin praised Shakur's performance: "He played this part with an appealing mix of presence, confidence and humor". [4] 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". [5] 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". [6] 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". [7]

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." [8]

Box office

Gridlock'd was released 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. [9] The film was released in the United Kingdom on May 30, 1997. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "Gridlock'd". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Upton, Sam (July 1997). "Smack is a bit of a taboo subject over here". Select : 113.
  3. ↑ "Gridlock'd". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 2023-02-07. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  4. ↑ Maslin, Janet (January 29, 1997). "And You Thought Recovery Was Serious Business" . The New York Times . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  5. ↑ Howe, Desmond (January 31, 1997). "'Gridlock'd': Surprisingly Footloose". The Washington Post . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  6. ↑ Wloszczyna, Susan (January 29, 1997). "Late Rapper and Roth Animate Gridlock'd". USA Today .
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 31, 1997). "Gridlock'd". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved May 15, 2021– via RogerEbert.com.
  8. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (January 31, 1997). "Gridlock'd". Entertainment Weekly . Time . Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Gridlock'd". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 2023-02-07. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  10. ↑ "30th May 1997 - 1st June 1997". 25thframe.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2020.[ dead link ]
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