War crimes

Traffic

(2000)

Yes, that's right: the way to keep kids from dealing and using drugs is to build lots more lighted baseball diamonds, here and in Mexico, and presumably in Colombia and Afghanistan as well.

I don't really have much to say about this; yes, it's great filmmaking, no, it's not really very convincing. But I remember the first time I saw it, when Jennie Tonic and I were still calling ourselves married and I was regularly visiting her in the city, and we went to some theater on the Upper East Side, I believe (maybe West, but I think East), and stood in a long line, and finally squeezed into two of the last available seats, in the right-hand corner of the balcony.

Then there's this: when I first signed up for Netflix, in July 2003, one of the first things I rented was the 1989 BBC miniseries Traffik, which was the basis for Soderbergh's film, and which I also recommend.