Traffic 2000

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Yet another indication of how accomplished a filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has become. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: In compelling terms, it puts bitter economic, social and racial truth before our eyes. Continue to blink or see. Your choice. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: A triumph from all perspectives. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A cogent commentary on a major societal ill and a signal from Soderbergh that he's more than capable of handling the complexities of an ensemble drama. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The film understands the sheer, brutal force of human desire. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: I don't see this slightly better-than-average drug thriller, with slightly better-than-average direction by Steven Soderbergh, as anything more than a routine rubber-stamping of genre reflexes. Read more

Hap Erstein, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Impressively vast canvas portrait of the futile war on drugs, though lacking anything new on the subject. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Smart, risky entertainment. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A blistering, thought-provoking modern masterpiece. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: Traffic sometimes has the impact of a tense war film or a grittily modernist, post- Godfather crime epic such as Heat or Goodfellas. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Dazzling! Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Director Steven Soderbergh is riding one of the hottest streaks in the movie world. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Occasionally naive, but often harrowing, always engaging. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Soderbergh's jazzed stylistics can be smartly entertaining. Without them, an uneven movie like Traffic might seem more of a melange than it already is. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The promise of Sex, Lies, and Videotape has been fulfilled. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: There's enough here to keep anyone in awe. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The narrative pallet of Traffic is rich, tightly woven, and consistently involving, with characters that are as well developed as their necessarily limited screen time allows. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn't preach. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Traffic is a failure of a very high order -- a movie that takes a gutsy stand and displays real filmmaking savvy but simply isn't as exciting as it should be to watch. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: With Traffic, his most ambitious and complex film to date, Soderbergh again proves himself one of our most inventive filmmakers. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: It's wise about different kinds of addiction and concepts of family, about the folly, futility and hypocrisy of anti-drug 'wars', and about the awful human cost of it all. And it grips like a vice from start to end. Read more

Laura Fries, Variety: Represents docudrama-style storytelling at a very high level. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Exemplary Hollywood social realism. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: As Javier Rodriguez, a Mexican policeman caught between overwhelming corruption and his granite-encased integrity, Del Toro's the best reason of all to watch the movie. Read more