Ok. So,
Crash probably didn't deserve the Best Picture win. I saw it tonight. It actually kinda bugged me in several places, most notably the fact that it couldn't stick with the same characters for more than 3 minutes at a time. That, and I wanted to punch most of them. The filmmakers make a big point to stress that they wanted to capture reality regardless of how ugly it got. It was convenient ugliness, though. I have no doubt that some, if not most, of the events of the film occur to real people, but this film was relentless. It was everyone's worst day moment after moment, and I don't think that solves anything, or shows realism.
No one was "taken down a peg," and no one was shown to be "better" than would be expected by their racist detractors. Everyone started at the very bottom, and just wallowed there. At one point, and I may have taken particular note of it because Amy previously blogged about it, the character played by Ludacris bitches about racist waitresses and how he and his friend were "sized up" immediately by the waitress in the coffee shop, and essentially ignored.
From Amy's blog, 'cause she put it better than I was starting to:
There was one exchange that made me actually "lol" while watching Crash. One young black man is complaining to his friend about the service they had just received in a restaurant. "That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We're black, and black people don't tip. She wasn't gonna waste her time. Somebody like that? Nothing you can do to change their mind."
His friend asks, "How much did you leave?"
He responds, "You expect me to pay for that kind of service?"And then, Ludacris complains that a white woman shrunk at the sight of him and his friend, into her husband. That racist, assuming bitch. And then he steals her car. Was this film intending to push the message "Be afraid, bitches, because what you're thinking? You're absolutely right."
The film did come off as very self-important, which was a turn-off. I generally don't like films that don't seem to be so puffy with pride that they are saying important things. There were some good performances turned in, such as a sympathetic one by Don Cheadle and a vicious one by Thandie Newton. Michael Pena, who was the locksmith Daniel, was actually quite excellent, too.
Matt Dillion generally bugs the hell out of me, and he was no exception here. Sandra Bullock came off as a bitch, but that was the point. Casting Sandra Bullock was part of that point, and it was both manipulative and clever (same thing) for the cast agent to do. No one wants to hear an American Sweetheart talk about hispanics as gangbangers and thieves. But we can't help but eat it up.
Brendan Fraser was a useless block of wood. Terrence Howard, thrust into the breaking point, probably deserved more than he got and when he should have been understandably blowing up instead seemed like he was having a hissy fit. Ryan Phillipe was alright. Tony Danza was a distracting cameo, but Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi!) was fun to see. I like Jennifer Esposito, and I've never seen her in a drama; I wished she had more to do.
Unfortunately, that was true of most everyone. Since it really was a film walking in circles, that for two hours, it didn't go anywhere. It made humanity seem pretty fucked up (knew that), and there were no redeemable figures in the plot, in the long run, besides Daniel. And no one had a lot of screen time, because they had to make room for 30 other leads in the film. That was frustrating, because it made it seem like this was some sort of pilot for a bunch of films, but instead we get like 15 minutes stitched together of everyone each.
As a whole, it was decent, and predictable. Not predictable as in I could see everything a mile away, but predictable and obvious about two minutes before something "shocking" or "unexpected" was explained. Examples of that included
( Read more... )So, essentially, a little murky, but watchable. Anyone want my copy of it?
apathetic
indifferent