Review of Traffik (2018) by Jack W — 20 Apr 2018

The first thing that hits you is a certain awkward irony: the film is supposed to be about the horrific exploitation and sexual slavery of women, but spends the first half with lingering close up shots and passes of Paul Patton's body parts.

It's as if the director's always had a crush on her and took the opportunity to see as much cleavage and ass as possible. The story is engaging, but there's two major things wrong with this film: The screenplay and the directing.

The dialogue is very awkward, and the directing (which I normally never notice in films) is at times so bad that it takes you out of the film. There are several moments that are engaging, but some elements are so frustrating it makes you want to yell at the screen.

1. The "friend" of the lead guy is such an utter douchebag / asshole, it's so unbelievable they'd every actually be friends. No person acts like that. Down to saying the laughably horrible line of "once a whore always a whore!" about his girlfriend who is standing beside him in front of Patton and the lead guy.

Then there is the string of horror cliches that Patton does. Deon makes her the equivalent of the dumb blond going down into the creepy basement in her underwear. It's a shame, because overall this film should have been a low budget sleeper hit that had a powerful message.

But I didn't feel there was any message at the end. All I got was a "creative" series of upside down shots of a freeway as the credits rolled.