Human Traffic

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Human Traffic, the debut movie written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan, swaps Trainspotting's heroin for the more optimistic effervescence of Ectasy, but tries to keep everything else that made that movie successful intact. It's a druggy ride with a handful of British ravers who live for the weekend's hedonistic release. Quirky minor incidents are played out with a pounding breakbeat score. There's impotent Jip (John Simm), his black DJ friend Koop (Shaun Parkes), whose father believes he receives commands from the TV, and their respective love interests. If the future looks grim, England's youth indulge in the evanescent sublime. At times, Kerrigan's movie lives up to this, as if any true treatment of rave culture must look good, move with style, and be ultimately forgettable.