FILM 
MOVIE REVIEW
Heavy Traffic ***
by Ed Gonzalez on October 16, 2002 Jump to Comments (0) or Add Your Own
Ralph Bakshi's cartoon Heavy Traffic ferociously mixes in live-action elements, tracing the schizophrenic journey of a struggling cartoonist through a crippling '70s New York City. As preposterous as it is urgent, Bakshi's disconcerting manifesto is ripe with racial tensions, sexual ambiguities and seemingly prefigures both AIDS and Giuliani. Michael is a virgin, caught up in the riptide of his parents' chaotic relationship: his father is a low-life cheating Italian, his mother a foul-mouthed Jewish harpy. He is unloved and ridiculed into committing rape. He takes to the streets, coming in contact with an assortment of underground lowlifes that disgust, scare and inspire him to draw. Heavy Traffic followed Bakshi's now-classic Fritz the Cat and is alive with the same kind of gritty aplomb familiar to early Abel Ferrara works. Heavy Traffic is all over the place but this deliriously perverted, ghostly film about artists struggling against poverty is a frightening blast from the past.
- Director(s): Ralph Bakshi
- Screenplay: Ralph Bakshi
- Cast: Joseph Kaufamann, Beverly Atkinson, Lillian Adams, Michael Brandon, Candy Candido, Frank DeKova, Terri Haven, Mary Dean Lauria
- Distributor: American International Pictures
- Runtime: 76 min.
- Rating: R
- Year: 1973
Comments
Add Your Own
Most Popular
- The 25 Best Films of 2011
- The Dictator
- Dark Shadows
- Battleship
- Moonrise Kingdom
- Hick
- What to Expect When You're Expecting
- Interview: James Franco
- The Avengers
- Interview: Xavier Dolan
Giveaway
Newsletter
