Heavy Traffic (Animated)

Animator Ralph Bakshi's frenzied glimpse into the sleazy 1970s New York of pimps, drag queens, and Times Square perversity, this hallucinatory romp centers on Michael (Joseph Kaufman), an underground cartoonist who lives with his shrill Jewish mother and mobster Italian father, and escapes the urban squalor via his art. The stage is set for a crescendo of explosive violence when Michael gets romantically involved with sassy black bartender Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson), arousing his father's racist fury as well as the jealousy of Shorty, Carole's violent, legless barfly devotee.

Bakshi's second film remains one of his boldest and most brilliant, thanks to its uncompromisingly bleak vision, over-the-top violence, satirically exaggerated racial stereotypes, and frank sexuality. But beyond all the wildness beats a real heart and piercing honesty. Bakshi's technique of integrating live action and old films with different styles of animation works perfectly in this loosely autobiographical series of hallucinatory vignettes. This hilarious, horrifying, bittersweet portrait of urban alienation and artistic struggle still resonates with a raw power that has lost none of its force in the passing years.

Animation | Cult | Experimental | Satire | Theatrical Release | Urban Life | Urban Violence