Netflix Losing Award-Winning Crime Thriller With All-Star Cast, Stream Now
The Academy Award-winning 2000 film Traffic addresses the nation’s war on drugs at many levels and features an impressive star-studded cast. Michael Douglas, Benicio del Toro, Don Cheadle, and Catherine Zeta-Jones are just a few of the many highly recognized cast members. Others include Albert Finney, Dennis Quaid, Luis Guzman, Amy Irving, and Topher Grace.
The film is a terrific crime thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh that you can watch before it leaves Netflix at the end of July.
Three Connected Stories
Traffic’s intriguing plot revolves around global drug trafficking and its effects as shown through three interrelated story lines. One story line is in Mexico, where all is not as it seems for two police officers who stop a drug shipment and are offered new assignments targeting the Tijuana Cartel. They are successful but without realizing they are benefiting the rival Juarez Cartel.
Search For A Missing Daughter
A second story line in Traffic revolves around Robert Wakefield, who is a federal judge in Ohio and becomes the nation’s drug czar. His daughter Caroline, though, is addicted to cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine and runs away from home. Robert searches the seedy side of Cincinnati while trying to track down and locate his missing daughter.
An Ongoing Investigation
Traffic’s third story line involves a DEA investigation in San Diego that results in the arrest of a highly placed drug dealer named Eduardo Ruiz. Ruiz provides information that causes the arrest of Carl Ayala, who is the Tijuana Cartel’s biggest dealer in the United States. Ayala’s wife doesn’t want her husband to go to prison for life or be killed by his cartel associates, so she hires an assassin to kill Ruiz and end the criminal case against her husband.
Ongoing Intrigue And Critical Reception
The three story lines in Traffic intersect in a gripping and very entertaining manner that continues to please audiences nearly a quarter century later. The film earned high praise among most film critics, including a 93 percent favorable ranking among critics and 85 percent among audience members on Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic gives it an 86 percent score, and IMDb a score of 7.6 out of 10.
Box Office Returns And Accolades
Traffic grossed $207.52 million at the global box office, including $124.12 million in the United States. It premiered on December 27, 2000, and opened in theaters nationwide on January 5, 2001. The film was initially edged out of the top position by What Women Want during its first two days in theaters but reached No. 1 on January 8.
Traffic garnered five Academy Award nominations in 2001 for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay Adaptation, and Best Film Editing. The film won Oscars for all but the Best Picture nomination. The respective Oscars went to del Toro, Soderbergh, Stephen Gaghan, and Stephen Mirrione.
Stream Traffic While You Still Can
The story’s pacing, editing, and cinematography make it very appealing for audiences during its 2:27 run time. So does the stellar acting performances by an equally stellar cast with Soderbergh affirming why he’s among the world’s most-respected film directors. You can stream Traffic on Netflix before it leaves the streaming platform on July 31.
