"Blow" MUCH Better Than "Traffic"

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2001)

Inevitably, both "Blow" and "Traffic" will be compared to each other. However, these are two very different films which for me give off two very different "feels".
"Traffic" is preachy, slap-stick, and down right insulting to intelligent viewers. I still maintain that it sells out its audience at the end of the film reducing it to nothing more than a B-Movie which did NOT deserve to be one of those nominated for an Oscar.
But on to the issue at hand -- and that's Blow.
The film is a well-planned, well thought out film. Johnny Depp handily carries this script which is not pushy, not forceful. Instead, it is a cunning play on the viewer's emotions which makes it easy for the masses to "buy in to".
Once the film has you in the tent, you are submurged in a culture many of us have only seen and heard of on those E! True Hollywood Stories. Its the 70s and nothing is clean -- not the drugs, not the people, not the environment.

"Traffic" moved me -- it moved me right out of the theatre wanting my money back.
"Blow" moves me -- it builds up an empathy but an understanding for the characters it presents... the viewer can't help but sit there and feel mixed emotions about the characters.
There has not been a movie which has done this to me since "American Beauty." That film had every range of emotion for the person chomping on the popcorn... "Blow" carries that same feel, that same emotion.
This is not the "poor man's Traffic" as some critics would like you to believe. Sit back and take the film at face value... this is a poignant tale about fortune and the perils it brings... a parable strong enough to move not only me, but (agasp) the packed-house of mostly college-aged students I viewed the film with.
After the Drought of 2000, there is hope this year on the silver screen... and the first savior to come along is "Blow."
A must-see film.