Gridlock'd

From the very first to the very last scenes of this film, I sat immobile, bug-eyed, and completely agog at the sight of my own painfully hopeless experience as a strung-out junk zombie. And I wonder: why did they never screen this film for us in rehab? Not only is "Gridlock'd" an exciting, intelligent, and visually riveting film, it is also dead on the money in its depiction of the excruciating emotional, spiritual, and material bankruptcy of a junkie's living death. Stretch and Spoon are well fleshed-out characters with which I can identify in almost every aspect, and are beautifully portrayed by Shakur and Roth. The true genius of this story is that, despite its grim and uncomfortably blunt treatment of its subject matter, it manages to convey a message of hope that no matter how deeply entrenched in addiction one may be, one CAN break the shackles of substance abuse and realize that one's life is worth saving.