Set in the earliest days of the pandemic, Traveling Light presents a deep dive into the societal chaos of 2020. Through his characters and their contrasting circumstances and attitudes, writer/director Bernard Rose (whose eclectic filmography includes 1992’s Candyman and Beethoven biopic Immortal Beloved, among others) realistically dramatizes a time that most of us prefer to forget, which can make Traveling Light a challenging watch.
Los Angeles is in total shutdown as Caddy (Todd), an Uber/delivery driver, completes job after job while also searching for his lost son, who has been living on the streets. Over the course of 24 hours, Caddy’s path intersects with those of Harry (Huston), a self-proclaimed spiritual guru, and his predominantly privileged followers, who are headed to a gathering at their cult leader’s house.
Caddy’s work as an Uber driver accentuates the literal and figurative distance between classes as he delivers rider after rider to Harry’s mansion on the hill. Repeatedly he drives past the camps of unhoused people beneath the bridge and into the greenery of the wealthy neighborhood where the “spiritual group” is meeting for their mask-free, drug-infused gathering. All the while, news of George Floyd’s murder is a constant buzz from every radio and TV screen. “I can’t fucking breathe,” Caddy says bitterly from his couch. Shaking his head, his disappointment is apparent as he carries on with his day. It is the first line of dialogue in the film and the only direct acknowledgement of the murder from any character, but that framing is essential to the viewer’s experience of the film.
That Traveling Light was shot with handheld equipment also contributes to the isolative, off-putting theme of disconnectedness between characters and settings. Every interaction is built with a sense of tension and distrust, and tempers on both sides of the “virus issue” run to extremes. The film successfully evokes all the hair-raising tension of a time not too far behind us, and creates a commentary on class, race, and societal values that continue to resonate nearly three years on. Excellently executed and expertly written, Traveling Light comes to us as a grave, razor-sharp reminder of not what used to be, but still is.
This article appears in The Drinks Issue (2022).