While I'm in review mode, I went to see the film Crash over the weekend. It's well-written and -directed by Paul Haggis, and features an all-star cast, including the always watchable and recent-Academy-Award-nominated Don Cheadle. All the acting is good. You can practically see the enjoyment of these actors acting in well-developed roles, and with the minimum of scene-chewing. Matt Dillon, as a "baddie," is good, as is Cheadle, the rapper Ludacris (twisted comic relief), and Michael Pena, as an electrician attempting to provide a safe and sane home for his young daughter (I will say the Thandie Newton is a little on the histrionic side and Sandra Bullock's one-note performance seems intended to show that she can be non-cute).
But this film should probably be reviewed more as a cultural statement than as an artistic one. The director has stated that his intention was to make viewers debate the questions the film raises which all have to deal with race relations in Los Angeles and, by extension, a multi-ethnic United States. In a more general sense, what the film depicts is the damage caused by racial stereotyping and ensuing miscommunication. These are indeed provocative questions, and well-worth debating. My boyfriend, who is black, and I (who am white, though you needn't make that assumption by reading this blog--indeed, Haggis would say DON'T make that assumption) definitely had some things to talk about.
One critique I would make is that LA is not necessarily as bad as depicted in the film. This is a town that yesterday voted in a Latino as mayor, so they must be making some progress in the world of race relations. There is always some good news, better news anyway than that racist shits can sometimes be heroic, and do-gooder whites can sometimes be stunningly nasty. There's always more to the story, and I think the makers of this film would agree with that sentiment.
And following one of my usual obsessions with film, the opening credits are well done in an abstract, impressionistic way, and the digital "paratext" (film website) is also interesting and worth a look:
http://www.finelinefeatures.com/crash/cmp/storyboard.html
Posted by jeb at May 19, 2005 6:08 PM | TrackBack