Film Review: Human Traffic

I revised my A-levels to Latino; raved to House music on Kentish industrial estates; college gave me Garage; and at 3am in the morning I prefer Evian (but I hate anyone who owns a whistle or screams Acieeeeeeeeeedd). Today my relaxation on a Saturday night is, arms high, largin' it to Oakenfield @ The Ministry. So what does Cluas' resident clubber think of Kerrigan's film on the Cardiff clubland scene?

'Human Traffic' follows Jip, played by John Simms of "The Lakes" fame, as he and his mates travel through a frenzied weekend. Lulu (Dublin's Lorraine Pilkington) and Koop (Shaun Parkes) provide likeable sidekicks (and kooky names) to the gregarious, fun-loving Jip. However it is Danny Dyer's antics as Moff that often steal the laughs over the verbal humour which more than once falls flat.

After the Trainspotting-esque opening introductions (freeze-frames, reversals, subtitles), I found that the movie revealed a scene more akin to London than Cardiff. Certainly it may not completely gel well with, say, that in Manchester, Dublin or Nottingham at the moment, but look beyond the details of the South East scene and it's all the same fun. Kerrigan has taken a cruelly low budget, spent it on likeable characters, a storming soundtrack and then used the club to provide all the action. This is no bad thing as both the actors' enthusiasm and the audience's attention are drawn up to this point in the film and then pulled gently down toward a mellow end-game.

Foregoing the normal conventions (where's the plot? I want a plot!), this is no story-fine, plot-perfect tale - but rather a meandering film told in the way a million weekends are recounted every Monday morning to workmates. Granted, this leads to overly simplistic sub-plots (including the inevitable love story), but in doing so the movie endears itself. And here lies the film's hook - I know these people, I meet up with them myself on Friday nights, I am a Weekender...

If it twigs memories of your own sordid past - of weekend victories, garbage speak, mad moments, low recoveries - then this is top drawer. If it doesn't, then EastEnders is apparently on TV thrice a week now.

Human Traffic? Take the trip.....

Sick Boy EB

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