Traffic
Academy Award × 4
Rent/Purchase
An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.
What critics thought
Soderbergh's multi-threaded drug-war panorama landed as a near-unanimous critical success, praised for its documentary-style immediacy, morally unresolved storytelling, and an ensemble that never lets any single thread feel like the 'main' film. The lone loud dissent — that the structure leans on crime-movie clichés and ultimately fails to cohere — was genuinely rare, but it named a tension others quietly acknowledged: the film's restraint can read either as mature ambiguity or as a refusal to fully commit.
“The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn't preach. It is so restrained that at one moment—the judge's final speech—I wanted one more sentence, making a point, but the movie lets us supply that thought for ourselves”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Traffic is an utterly gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or rather it is several interwoven thrillers, each with its own tense rhythm and explosive payoff”
Stephen Holden·The New York Times
“Traffic marks [Soderbergh] definitively as an enormous talent, one who never lets us guess what he's going to do next. The promise of Sex, Lies, and Videotape has been fulfilled”
Andrew Sarris·The New York Observer
“Traffic, for all its earnestness, does not work. It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied”
Richard Schickel·Time
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast & Crew
DirectorSteven Soderbergh
StarringMichael Douglas, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Erika Christensen, Don Cheadle
ComposerCliff Martinez
Traffic
Academy Award × 4
An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.
What critics thought
Soderbergh's multi-threaded drug-war panorama landed as a near-unanimous critical success, praised for its documentary-style immediacy, morally unresolved storytelling, and an ensemble that never lets any single thread feel like the 'main' film. The lone loud dissent — that the structure leans on crime-movie clichés and ultimately fails to cohere — was genuinely rare, but it named a tension others quietly acknowledged: the film's restraint can read either as mature ambiguity or as a refusal to fully commit.
“The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn't preach. It is so restrained that at one moment—the judge's final speech—I wanted one more sentence, making a point, but the movie lets us supply that thought for ourselves”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Traffic is an utterly gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or rather it is several interwoven thrillers, each with its own tense rhythm and explosive payoff”
Stephen Holden·The New York Times
“Traffic marks [Soderbergh] definitively as an enormous talent, one who never lets us guess what he's going to do next. The promise of Sex, Lies, and Videotape has been fulfilled”
Andrew Sarris·The New York Observer
“Traffic, for all its earnestness, does not work. It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied”
Richard Schickel·Time
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast & Crew
DirectorSteven Soderbergh
StarringMichael Douglas, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Erika Christensen, Don Cheadle
ComposerCliff Martinez
Rent/Purchase