Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall, Gridlock’d follows musicians Spoon (Tupac) and Stretch (Tim Roth) as they navigate the multitudes of red tape needed to get clean from heroin after the accidental New Years Eve drug overdose of their love interest/lead singer Cookie (Thandie Newton). As anyone who has ever been bounced around the system while trying to get help can tell you, it’s not going to be easy.
I love movies that are centered in a tight time frame where the leads find themselves between rocks and hard places and must continually squeeze their way out, and this film offers that up at every cringe-inducing opportunity. Neither Spoon nor Stretch know how to navigate the complicated system, so they often find themselves at the wrong office, at the wrong time, talking to the wrong person. Before long frustration overcomes them and they realize they can’t do this with a straight head and make a visit to their local drug dealer to get high. This happens a couple of times, and after a repeat visit, after yet another dead end, they return to the dealer and find him dead, which of course puts them square in the target of law enforcement and a drug kingpin played by Curtis-Hall.
After the badass back to back performances in Above the Rim and Juice, Tupac must’ve decided it was time to start showing off a bit more of his dramatic skills, and he is absolutely wonderful in this movie as the straight man to Roth’s wildcard. They develop an easy back and forth and the humor and bond shared between them is genuine. You can’t help but hope they will discover the straight path and receive the help they need but at the same time you know it’ll likely end in more misadventure. It’s a deft takedown of the then current healthcare system, which sadly hasn’t improved in the decades since, and that only adds to the sense of frustration.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
