Steven Soderbergh kicked off the decade with a bang. With Erin Brockovich he directed Julia Roberts to an Academy Award, and he was nominated for Best Director for both Brockovich and Traffic, winning for the latter. Traffic is the better of the two, and it’s no surprise that a decade later many filmmakers are still trying to emulate Soderbergh’s unique photography. The film is set in Mexico and California and Washington, D.C. and Ohio, following the illegal drug trade from the cartels of Mexico and into the streets and homes of the United States. The interlocking stories work well, and there are great performances by probably a dozen actors, each with enough to do in a film with a lot of speaking roles and no clear protagonist. The best performance is by Benicio del Toro, who stood out in both The Usual Suspects and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but won an Oscar and a career for his role as Javier Rodriguez, an honest Mexican cop.
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