Gridlock'd 1997

Critics score:
88 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: A smart, well-made buddy film about two junkies desperate to kick the habit. Read more

Jack Mathews, Los Angeles Times: Cast against type as the gentler of two musician junkies trying to burrow through the bureaucracy to enter a rehab clinic in Detroit, Shakur has the relaxed screen presence of a young Wesley Snipes and plays perfectly off the delirious Tim Roth. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The movie's appeal lies largely in its capacity for surprise, riffing off tired characters and pooped genres to produce, intermittently at least, a fresh new tone. Call it junkie humour. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Gridlock'd is refreshing because it's different. The subject matter isn't new, but the approach and tone are. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is grim material, but surprisingly entertaining, and it is more cause to mourn the recent death of Shakur, who gives his best performance as Spoon, a musician who wants to get off drugs. Read more

Jennie Yabroff, Salon.com: A surprisingly light-hearted comedy about what happens when two self-imposed exiles from society decide to go straight and look to the system for a little help. Read more

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle: The film seems so fresh it's almost possible to forget that it is a fraud in its description of the culture of hard drugs. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: The film has a fairly uninteresting narrative motor in its thriller subplot, but hits on an edgy black comic tone for Stretch and Spoon's increasingly pained dealings with the unsympathetic representatives of authority. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: An engaging look at a mangy day in the lives of two junkies trying to kick, Gridlock'd would have been a good mid-level B.O. performer even without the interest surrounding it, due to the recent death of co-star Tupac Shakur. Read more

Richard Harrington, Washington Post: Read more