June 1, 2005
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WEDNESDAY MOVIECrash
Ordinarily I wouldn’t blog about a film that made me so tense. You’d think that since “intelligent” serial killer films are my favorite genre, that’s an absurd statement. But this is different – this was too much like real life at its most nonstop desperate. Set in LA, it’s one of those “intersection” films (kind of like an early Stephen King novel) where various characters come from divergent corners of the plot to meet by amazing coincidence in the middle. Let’s see, we have: a Brentwood housewife and her DA husband. A Persian store owner. Two police detectives who are also lovers. A black television director and his wife. A Mexican locksmith. Two car-jackers. A rookie cop. A racist cop. A middle-aged Korean couple… pretty much a token urban everybody. And that was part of the downfall for me – just a bit too much of every possible kind of situation that might produce fear and rage with little sparkles of epiphany thrown in here and there to make you think there might be hope – i.e., the racist cop roughs up the handsome middle-class black couple but wait he loves his very ill dad but wait he’s a bully but wait he’s also a hero who dives into a burning car to rescue can it be the very same exquisitely beautiful black woman he just abused a few frames ago. Epiphany! It probably didn’t help that the theater was fahreezing and the cinematography grainy. To give credit, the cast were some of my favorite folks, including Don Cheadle who was one of the film’s producers, and the acting was just fine – well maybe a little melodramatic (how many ways can you freeze frame a scream) – but overall it seemed to me like the message was Everybody Will Try To Kill You If You Just Push Their Particular Emotional Buttons Hard Enough. Unfortunately, that’s just a little bit too close to where our world seems to be headed for me to want to cogitate on for very long. So if you’re heading out to see it, bring a warm coat and some tranquilizers and hope if you don’t live in LA you’ll be safe.
Deep Thought: “I think it should be a law that if you ever get sucked up into a tornado, whatever you can grab with your hands while you’re swirling around up there, you get to keep.”
Today I am grateful for: Pillows
Guess the Movie: “Forget it! I’m stayin’ right where I am. It’s gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!” Answer: Norma Rae, 1979.
Bush, Cheney Attack Amnesty International
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – Stung by Amnesty International’s condemnation of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and elsewhere overseas, the administration of President George W. Bush is reacting with indignation and even suggestions that terrorists are using the world’s largest human rights organization. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: Once again, too tired to check out.
Comments (13)
Looks like an interesting movie.
I thought I wanted to see that movie but after reading your description of it I realize that would be too much for me.
My husband and son laugh about the Bush quote
, people who hate America, people had been trained in some instances to disassemble (sic) — that means not tell the truth”,
but really it’s not so funny. The man is shameless.
I think I won’t go to that movie
That movie gave me chills also and while we seen it the theatere was freezing too!!!! Wonder if it was planned?????
It took me a good 45 min. to get my barrings right!!!!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I think the part of the the racist cop suddenly redeeming himself and/or reaching epiphany is grossly misunderstood. True, I think it’s so very easy to see his role as a straighforward racist-to-redemption one, BUT I truly believe there’s another side to it, as I discussed at the end of Mike2Cent’s discussion thread.
I can see where it may be overload to some people, but for me I just see the writing as “rich” – not rich as in “bourgeoisie” but so layered (but maybe I’m weird). To me coming from so many weird backgrounds, I see the movie as the displaying the ultimate irony of the human condition. True there are a few weaknesses in the movie, but overall… well, maybe I’m just in the minority.
I second that — a coat and a sedative…
24 hours to go – I wanna be sedated…
kidding
I really found “Crash” annoying. I generally like movies involving overlapping storylines (such as “Magnolia” or “13 Conversations About One Thing”), but this one was just way too flawed and over the top. It was full of unlikeable characters, with every one being a racist (except for the lock repairman, who was the one essentially good person in the film).
I thought the best review of the movie that reflected my own perspective was in the LA Times: http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/chocano/cl-et-crash6may06,2,187512.story
I also thought that this movie was trying to hard to be a kind of cross between Magnolia and Grand Canyon. It was obviously derivative of Magnolia in the event at the end of the movie, except that, instead of frogs, we get snow.
Re your comment:
As near as I can figure, a vole is a cross between a field mouse and a mole. They’re small like mice, and tunnel like moles (although their tunnels aren’t quite as destructive as those of a mole).
The product I found is called “Shake Away,” and I bought it here: http://www.critter-repellent.com/vole/vole-control.php?source=GoogleAW . I hope it works.
Jeff
i’ve been wanting to see “crash” so i stopped reading your blog when you mentioned it, i hate reading anything about a movie before i see it…lol…but i did like your deep thought for the day!
I love pillows too big soft firm ones!
Dear Lionne,
I like nullwinkle’s remark that the film seemed like a cross between Magnolia and Grand Canyon. I immediately thought of Grand Canyon when I first saw the previews.
Well, thanks to your review, I know I will wait for this to show up on Netflix in a few months. I don’t go to movies every week anymore, since the ticket prices got too sky high, and most films look as good on my widescreen HDTV as they do in the theater anyway. I’ve had misgivings about this film since the previews, and the reviews haven’t really persuaded me to see it, even though Paul Haggis wrote and directed.
Everyone seems to be talking about it at work, however. From what I can ascertain, it paints a rather bleak picture of our fair city (Los Angeles) when in fact there are probably more positive aspects of living in a multicultural area like this than there are negative ones. (that is if one knows which neighborhoods to stay away from)
Thanks for the review. I’ll pass for now.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philospher, fool
Has there ever been an imperial government accused of human rights abuses that hasn’t attacked Amnesty International using almost the exact same words as Bush? Well, ok, most national leaders know the difference between “dissemble” and “disassemble” but we don’t value intelligence in America, so its no big deal.
I want to see “Crash” too, but now I don’t know. Although it’s not so bad to spend under 4 bucks for some entertainment, even if you end up lukewarm on it, so I probably still will rent it. Geez, Bush…words fail me…