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Cardiff, Wales. A bunch of 5 mates are deeply bored in this town. There's Jip who works in a clothes shop. Coop, an easy-going DJ. Nina, inseparable from her best friend Lulu and Moff. The week is hell for them and they only wait for one thing: the week-end. At this time, they got out to a nightclub and to the sound of tech no music, they experience different drugs, particularly ecstasy. Then, they usually continue the party to a friend's. 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. It means: how to have fun as much as possible while knowing that you have a shortened lapse of time. 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. Kerrigan's relentless directorial style expresses very well the spirit of debauchery and care freeness of the 5 protagonists. They only live to take advantage as much as possible of an hedonist week-end. Furthermore, to spice up a little more the festive atmosphere in which his movie bathes, Kerrigan isn't afraid to include dreamlike sequences which represent his characters' fantasy or embarrassments. Then, "Human Traffic" (1999) is also served by a particularly bouncy sound track. The amount? A perfect symbiosis between the sound and the music. At last, this week-end of euphoria enables to shelve momentarily the usual drab image of the popular social classes, British cinema has studied a lot.
Notwithstanding, when a movie (conscientiously or not) exploits the fame of another famous one, it rarely matches the brilliance of its predecessor. "Human Traffic" is in this condition. 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). One can also blame Kerrigan to overlook the dramatic sides that the story could have involved. His movie can also be read as a transition from euphoria to paranoia and the dramatic connotations of this second pole aren't virtually explored. It's a shame! It could have conveyed the following message: even in the happiest moments, there can be something terrible preparing which can flop them. 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. An ideal movie to start any party or before going to a club.


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