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Review

A frustration comedy about two junkies who run into bureaucratic roadblocks while trying to get clean, Gridlock'd is an engrossing but not quite heady trip. Mesmerizing performances by Roth (slumming it up again in another of his patented transformations) and Newton (as a sultry overdoser) prevent this potentially downbeat film from becoming a trite antidrug message movie. Yet it is the heartbreaking presence of the late rapper Shakur that really makes this gritty, dark urban tale valuable. The film's weakest element is the subplot about buddies Spoon (Shakur) and Stretch (Roth) being chased by D-Reper (director Curtis-Hall), a gangster they wronged. But at least this story line puts the rest of Gridlock'd's accomplishments in bold relief. Politicized to a degree, the film makes its points within an interesting and entirely constructive framework.