Human Traffic

Plot synopsis:
The film is an ensemble piece in which the five protagonists plan, enjoy and come down from a weekend out in Cardiff; all motivated at least in part by the need for a weekend escape from the difficulties and contradictions of their daily lives. Jip is suffering from sexual anxiety brought on by a series of unsuccessful liaisons. Koop, Jip's best friend, is jealous of his girlfriend Nina's popular and happy-go-lucky nature. Nina is being sexually harassed in a job she had no choice but to take after having failed a college interview. Lulu, Jip's best female friend and "dropping partner", has suffered infidelity in her last 3 relationships. Moff, the newest member of the group having met Jip at a warehouse party after moving from London to Cardiff, is an unemployed slacker who scrapes a living as a small-time dealer, despite his father being a senior policeman. The five friends become very close, take drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine, and "live for the weekend".
The film follows the exploits of the five friends as well as various characters they meet along the way. They go to pubs and clubs on Friday, taking along Nina's 17-year-old brother Lee whose waning enthusiasm for his first drugs experience is played out in a cameo debate between Jip and a doctor. Jip gives up his ticket to Lulu, whom he has talked into coming out and is forced to talk his way into the club as the group are a ticket short. The club scene is then examined through a series of cameos including two attempts by older journalists to understand the club scene. The ensemble then joins a house party, where Lulu and Jip finally kiss and attempt unsuccessfully to make love; whereas the established couple, Koop and Nina, argue over Koop's perceptions about her behaviour. Later, as expected by the group, "what goes up must come down" sets in as the effects of their drug use begin to hit home leaving them coping with feelings of illness and paranoia. They recover Lee from a group of younger partygoers he has spent the night with and make their way home.
On returning home, some of the group's issues are resolved whilst some are thrown into sharper relief. Jip makes love to Lulu, overcoming his sexual paranoia. Koop and Nina's issues are set aside. Lee has made it through the weekend without any of his concerns being realised. Moff, however, is still caught up in the paranoia caused by his extensive drug use. He argues with his parents again and is seen walking alone around Cardiff looking disheartened. However, Moff joins his friends for an end of the weekend drink and having raged about his difficulties with drugs is soon joking about his excesses with his friends. The film finishes with Jip and Lulu kissing in the street in the manner of classic Hollywood films.

Tags: romantic, entertaining

Review:
Human Traffic is going to upset the majority of film critics who will view the lack of plot, the drug induced dialogue and the futile outlook on Nineties Youth culture as a miserable and desperate view of how weekends are spent by ravers and clubheads across the UK.
Moreover, they will spot camera work borrowed from Boogie Nights and even try and associate the whole film with 'Trainspotting' theme (because, lets face it, a Scottish Heroin addict trying to clean up his act and a Welsh clubber looking for a good time with his mates is pretty much the same thing, right?)Well wrong.
Human Traffic has landed - along with one and a half quality hours of clubs, drugs, pubs and parties - and its time to leave behind your preconceptions of what a film should be like (where's the plot?
or any other such American rave film with clear cut margins and please-the-crowd conclusions - it is one that forces us to question whilst at the same time enjoy the at times hilarious, touching and other times exciting events of 48 hours with a group of five 'friends'.And for the die-hard British youth among you, this might not be reality - but it's a bloody brave effort at depicting it..
And of course the chat in the pub when Moff tries to explain to his mates that he's coming off the drugs is a sure reminder that when the come down's out-way the good times, you know the party's over!This is at times a very clever film in it's use of the camera, lighting, etc.
It was a realised piece of cinema, and a great feel-good tale of mates, love, clubs, and drugs.Get outta the 'rat race' people!!!8/10Enjoy!.
The odd time it tries to give the characters specific issues or lives it tends to hurt itself but for the majority it works.The script is funny with nice imaginative touches blended with real life club/drug culture/pub culture references and settings to make it identifiable and interesting.
It's definitely a great film if you want to watch characters who lead even more pointless lives than you.
This movies is obviously the most realistic movie about clubbing ever made, but this is true for us in Europe becuase in America, they have a Chopped up version of Human Traffic, Yes, I just sent this movie to my brother who lives in America, he's seen it already the U.S, and this is want he wrote me, after seeing the british tape I send him: "There's basically new stuff throughout the whole movie.
Any film which contains an affectionate tribute to the prophet Bill Hicks (the best, most astute and concerned stand-up comedian that ever lived), and an inspired cameo from Howard Marks surely demands a bit more substance.But HUMAN TRAFFIC never allows you to linger on its flaws.
At the end of this really good time on Sunday, the feelings are the following ones: tiredness, melancholy, just the memory of a crazy night...Surfing on the wave of the notorious success of "Trainspotting" (1996), this debut movie written and directed by Justin Kerrigan brings and develops a new variation about the notion of hedonism.
Indeed, as I have previously written, for the 5 main characters of the movie, the week is hell and the weekend is the only time they can free themselves and have a wild time without the single pressure (besides, Jip in one sequence talks about the positive aspects of shooting oneself: you are numb, you don't feel any pressure, you are like an astronaut in orbit above the earth.
There's little inventiveness at the level of the narrative structure and the introduction of the characters and one can note down a few useless digressions (Jip who, in the nightclub goes in the manager's office and tells him a cock-and-bull story so as to enable Moff to enter the club but that's no use because the latter succeeds in coming without problems).
The same remark could also be said when Coop has a fit of jealousy because Nina broaches a guy.It may not be the last great film of the nineties as it is billed on the DVD cover but "Human Traffic" is to be taken as a good and incisive little movie which conveys with the styles and the fashions of the end of the twentieth century, a will to have fun without ulterior motives and trouble.
Yep, I couldn't find anything witty to say about this piece of junk, other than its crap.Leaving aside the drugs issue, this film has nothing remotely resembling a story, there are no meaningful scenes anywhere, nothing resembling interesting dialogue, no characters of any substance, nothing.
To quote the Grauniad: "The last great film of the nineties"As if.As a tale of a group of Cardiff teenagers who are obsessed by the drug and club culture, this actually bored me from start to finish, and took something like 15 attempts to finish seeing it.As far as glorification of drug culture goes, this is as predictable as it gets.Just not very good.
The characters are annoying, the story is boring, and the worst part is the director's obvious attempt to "make a movie like Trainspotting and Groove", both excellent films.
Any clubber in the UK can quote a myriad of the memorable, hilarious and representative scenes that fill the film.If you like to rave and you were born in the early eighties you have probably seen this movie already and know it well, for new comers to clubbing, this is a history lesson, this is how it used to be, and still can be on occasion.There is little plot other than heading out for the weekend, but that is why this film thrives, with deep archetypal characters that we can recognise and empathise with, who love to get mashed up and on occasion pay for it with a steadily loosened grip on reality.Pretty much everyone I know who was raving in the late 90's and early 2000's knows this film inside out and loves it.
I bought this on DVD after missing out when it was released and was expecting a witty but terse affair much like the excellent trainspotting, from the mindless drivel of the opening monolgues I knew that it was 10 pounds wasted.Okay lets put the facts straight this film probably shouldn't hit the heights of the junkie limbo atmosphere of trainspotting but rather be a more light hearted affair with flamboyant characters, as even a treacharous plot-line as human traffic blatantly is could be rescued by a gang of young charismatic cast-members, human traffic fails and dies in every aspect with drab performances all round by a bunch of twenty-somethings who seem to be picked off the street for their complete lack of talent in this movie not to mention lack of chemistry between them.Much like Renton is our narrative guide in Trainspotting, the protaganist Jip(John Simm) leads us into this movie telling us he has certain problems in the bedroom, it is a relief once he has finished his mind-numbingly mundane drivel about mr softy to see some of the other characters but the disappointment is that some are as bad or even worse.We meet Koop(shaun parkes) an entertaining character at first-look who works in a music store but as he continues you get the feeling this movie is not going to have much impact when he spouts more or less the same trying to be "hip, young and cool" quota that Jip has just told you, by no means does the misery of the introduction end there.Nina, the fast-food waitress is one of the worst characters I have ever had to endure with the need to say f**k in pretty much the start, middle and end of every line she says, ok i blame the script for that but it's just not worth watching her character at all in this film it makes Jip and Koop seem like the most charismatic people you've ever met.Nina's best friend Lulu comes next, the powerful blonde has so much potential to become "the witty one" in this film but just falls down like all the others before her into the bottomless pit of unfunny flashbacks and notoriously sterile conversations with her counterpartsApart from Nina's brother Lee who is another banale poor character, this is where my criticism of the characters end for there is one gem amongst the cast and it comes in the form of cheeky cockney pill-popper Moff played by Danny Dyer who is actually very very funny, witty and most importantly believeable which the rest of the cast completely fall short of being.
Moff's rants make this film somewhat bearable as you look forward to his stories of getting drugged up, calling a porn line and spouting his life story and subsequently running up a whopping phone bill!Don't get me wrong I enjoy a good comedy and probably even more-so a good british comedy but i can't defend or compliment this film in any great deal because it does not serve the purpose of a comedy- it is not funny!
My advice to anyone who wants to watch this film is to rent it rather than buy it because I am desperatly looking for a prospective buyer as this will be used as a surface to put my remote in future.Overall I had good expectations of this film but after watching it realise none of those expectations were fulfilled: a poor script, probably a bunch of the most un-magnetic actors(with the exception of Moff) ever assembled and a dire plot make for a bitter one and a half hours where you'll be constantly checking your timer to see if your anywhere near the end of the film.I would give this film a generous 2 out of 10 which are for Danny Dyer's humourous character Moff and a reasonable soundtrack.
As it happens the clubbing experience is great fun but this movie makes it appear both witless and irrelevant.Still, the soundtrack was pretty good..
Human Traffic is a very specific film in the sense it is going to appeal to a direct audience; the illusion that the audience are seeing something better than what it is lies in the surrealistic content that has wormed its way into the film thanks to other recent attempts at the time such as Trainspotting and The Acid House.
What they get up to is slightly uninteresting at the best of times, their activity only demonised on the rare occasion Danny Dyer narrates what it's like to come down off drugs at a bash full of random people all doing the same thing.
For watching ravers, it'll add to the disillusioned sense they might already have while watching but for everyone else, it's just quite ordinary and often comes across as a bit of a gimmick.Very near the film's immediate beginning is a short monologue about how a 17 year old boy hopes to have sex for the first time on a night out with the characters.
Human Traffic is purely a `been there, done that' experience  only this time it's quite limp.Major themes explored are paranoia, male impotence and jealousy  but only mildly and poorly.A lot of the movie seems to want to imitate Trainspotting (drug / `clubbing' culture)  but it fails to include the low times / come-downs that Trainspotting deals with (eg: issues with death / dependence, etc).
It includes the likes of Fat Boy Slim and CJ Bolland  come on people  good dance music IS be better than this!The characters become grating and annoying (especially half way through the movie) and the lack of care-for-the-characters soon dawns.There are a couple of funny scenes  but they are few and far between.
I've got no idea why this is called Human Traffic.The plot just follows a group of friends clubbing and partying for a weekend; the style felt like I was clubbing and partying with them.
There's little in the way of a plot - only a few scenes are crucial, and even they stumble a bit - but what drives the film is the style.Human Traffic is enveloped in a style that expresses the feelings and thoughts of clubbing in an engaging and funny way.
I love films without plots, but whilst La Haine (probably, like my 2nd favourite film) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (in the top 15) wrap up their character development swiftly and successfully, Human Traffic doesn't quite reach a conclusion fit for the entertaining experience of its core.
Through the Ecstacy-induced high to the alcohol-assisted comedown to the feelings of the morning after, their lives are on the brink of changing forever When 'Human Traffic' was released, many critics claimed that this was the last great British film of the nineties – and how right they were.
The film did have its cringe-worthy moments (perhaps the Alternative National Anthem being one) but it's saved by other moments of clever insight into Human interaction such as the scene where Jip has to talk to a guy who he admits isn't actually an unpleasant person but he just doesn't like him and the dialogue, direction and performances perfectly convey the thoughts that have run through everyone's head at some stage in life when we are desperate to extricate ourselves from a strained conversation which we wish we hadn't had to enter into in the first place.
An interest and very surreal piece of film making set in the capital of Wales.Human Traffic focuses on a group of five friends, Jip (John Simm), Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington), Koop (Shaun Parkers), Nina (Nicola Reynolds) and Moff (Danny Dyer), a combination of wage slaves, unemployed people and a student.
The gang to blow off some stream by having one wild weekend of clubbing to dance and techno music, drinking and consuming drugs, particularly ecstasy as Jip and Lulu discover their feeling for each other.Human Traffic is a very surreal film, with a big of number of fantasy sequences.
"I guess you had to be there!" That's Human Traffic in a nutshell, if you weren't there in some capacity then it is just about a bunch of young d*ckheads running around talking sh*t and taking drugs, but if you are the low side of 40 then perhaps at one time it is quite likely that YOU were one of the young d*ckheads running around and talking sh*t, drugs and/or alcohol may or may not have been a factor too.My "clubbing" era was reasonably brief, maybe 19 through 24ish, but during that span I had 15 nights that at least vaguely resembled the night the 5 main characters have in Human Traffic, without much of the snappy dialogue and cutscenes though.The five characters should be irrelevant and largely interchangeable, but in this film the casting is great and they all have sufficient time that we learn about who they are and what makes them tick.They are: Jip – the Everydude.
Perhaps it is because as I was watching the movie I was in fact recalling similar events from the period that I was doing the same stupid sh*t that these guys were, I dunno.In any case Human Traffic is the rarest of rare, a concept movie that takes a lot of risks yet actually works.It was written and directed by a young bloke too, because I don't think a 40 year old would be able to make this film and accurately convey the vibe that comes across.I know I couldn't, (I'm still a little ways away from 40).
I mean, the scene at the end between Lulu and her Auntie actually made me laugh out loud.Now maybe I am just a cynic, but the way Jip leads us through this tale is like listening to THAT Acid frazzled guy you once met at a house party, who talks to you about how "the man" is holding us back, and how Acid has released him from the strains of modern society.
This film just shows ciphers when clubbing is about as revolutionary and interesting as going down the disco in the late 70's/early 80's...Read 'Energy Flash' and watch Flowered Up's 'Weekender' to get a glimpse at the world 'Human Traffic' completely fails to capture..
I just saw Human Traffic and it was one of the worst movies i have seen that revolved around clubs and the party scene.
It was my life at one point and I would rely on coming home to watch Human Traffic ever night before I could even think of going to bed.
Viewers can deny the political and social implications of the subtext of Human Traffic as a drug film, Trainspotting wannabe, important peg in British youth culture circa 90's, BUT....they can't deny that these are engaging characters.It's frantic, its brutally honest, it's sobering, it's over the top, but its a great comedy.
Human Traffic is a really interesting film about a group of friends in Wales and what happens to them on a typical friday night.The relationships , the music, the drugs and conical way some kids try to live up to the stereotypes there friend expect of them.
"Human Traffic" is set in Cardiff, Wales, UK and tells the story of British drug and club culture during the nineties.
it also does a pretty good job of not totally glamorising drugs, a little like trainspotting.the problem i had with this film is what other people have mentioned about the over use of flashy camera techniques in order to help you connect with the feelings the characters are experiencing whilst on drugs.
This film reminded me of, me and my mates as soon as a friday comes 'THE WEEKEND HAS LANDED (all that exsists now is pubs club, drugs and parties'.
A well filmed, very funny insightful look into the world of the Cardiff Club and Drug cultures.
Any film that attempts to capture the essence of a movement/time has to connect with the viewer and make them feel that its talking about their own experiences.With Human Traffic the director, Justin Kerrigan, really succeeds in capturing the highs and lows of a lost weekend nineties style.
After watching this film I felt like I had been out partying all weekend.