Here Shakur plays Spoon, a Detroit musician who--together with pals Stretch (Tim Roth) and Cookie (Thandie Newton)--dabbles in the downtown jazz/beat scene. Most of the trio's time, however, is taken up with pursuit of their primary love: drugs. When Cookie OD's one fateful New Year's Eve and ends up in a coma, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick the habit once and for all. The majority of the film is taken up with our boys' day-long quest to get into a drug rehab program. Despite the resolve of their New Year's resolution, Spoon and Stretch soon realize how difficult getting that monkey off their back is going to be. Uncooperative hospital workers, underpaid government cronies and unsympathetic bureaucrats contribute to our heroes' frustrations and lend light to the title metaphor. Life, you see, is one big traffic jam. Even well-meaning folks can be stymied by a system overloaded with red tape, long lines and complicated forms. What hope do a couple low-rent junkies have?

What we have here is your basic hero's quest. Stretch is the crazy one, Spoon is the sensible one; together they go on a journey and encounter many crazy obstacles, not the least of which is an evil drug dealer who wants them dead. Though decidedly "one-note," the simple plot is actually kind of refreshing. It's rare to see an independent film these days that isn't enamored with Tarantinoesque pulp histrionics. Gridlock'd probably owes more to such modest black comedies as After Hours. While not exactly a "comedy," there is a considerable amount of humor in Spoon and Stretch's Sisyphean task.

Shakur is fine in the role of an earnest man trying to get his life sorted out. With lines like, "You ever get the feeling your luck is running out?" the ironies of Shakur's turbulent true life do manage to shine through. Ultimately, however, the film sidesteps the morbid fascination of Brandon Lee's posthumous performance in The Crow. Tim Roth, as expected, is terrif. He's far surpassed his fellow countryman Gary Oldman as the reliable workhorse of the American indie film scene. Whereas Oldman is prone to fits of hysterically over-the-top thesping, Roth underplays smartly. His Stretch comes across as a loose screw, but not as an annoying caricature of the "crazy white sidekick," so popular since the days of Lethal Weapon.

Writer/director Vondie Curtis Hall (best known as an actor in such films as Passion Fish, Broken Arrow and William Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet) contributes some great energy throughout and some genuine fireworks in the editing department. The past (flashbacks of the New Year's Eve party that triggered this whole story) blends in seamlessly with the present. Triphammer cuts and rapid-fire montages give the grimy Detroit locations a real spark of life without resorting to an MTV-style assault on the senses. Kudos to Director of Photography Bill Pope, who also shot the visually expressive Wachowski brothers thriller Bound.

While it is unlikely that a small film like Gridlock'd would have received distribution had it not been for the publicity surrounding Shakur's recent death (most of Shakur's other acting work slipped, unnoticed, direct to homevid), it is nice to see the theatrical attention being paid here. Fans and other curious onlookers are sure to flock to theaters and be treated to another side of the short-lived, controversial and clearly talented entertainer.