Best Description of Crash Yet
We know; we tend to get a little obsessive (and off-topic) from time to time.
Nonetheless, we needed to share this great description of Crash from Karina Longworth at Cinematical:
For those who have not yet had the pleasure, Crash is a science fiction film, set in an alternate universe that looks suspiciously like Los Angeles. This mythic dimension is populated exclusively by about a dozen men and women of various races and ethnicities; their only common trait, the compulsion to speak in stilted expository paragraphs. Singularly unintelligent and consumed with racially-motivated hatred, this crew has been cursed to encounter one another over and over again through easily preventable traffic incidents. In the film’s most compelling narrative knot, the District Attorney of Los Angeles (played by Brendan “Encino Man” Fraser; he apparently ran on a campaign devoted to “ample nugs, grindage, and minimal weezing on the juice”) has his car jacked by two black youths. The stolen SUV apparently has time shifting properties, for soon the two men find themselves in the 1860s, where they run over a “Chinaman” who is presumably standing in the middle of the street whilst working on the railroad. In the end, we learn that women tend to cry and scream a lot, and people of opposite races, apparently, don’t really get along. Also, when it comes to acting nominations, I know I’m not the only one who thinks Tony Danza was robbed.
Update: We love, love, love a sore loser — at least when she’s talking about a movie we hate, hate, hate…
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN author ANNIE PROULX has slated the Academy Awards for giving the Best Picture Oscar to CRASH at this year’s (06) presentation ceremony. In an essay published by British newspaper The Guardian, Proulx describes voters as “out of touch” and “segregated” from current issues, and insists they were easily influenced by Crash’s production company Lions Gate Entertainment. She writes, “Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. “And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of ‘Trash’ - excuse me, Crash - a few weeks before the ballot deadline. “Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver.
Although we’re sure others will curse you for feeding our obsession, we thank Bill Green for the tip.
I went to a PR blog and a movie review broke out. ;-p
Great cinematography, but that’s about it for me. It shouldn’t have won best pic. It got nominated last minute like many films do through a PR/ad blitz in Variety to academy members who for the most part, DON’T watch nominated films, let alone hear about more deserving films off of their radar.
Way too much relied on coincidence. The director just happens to be in the same neighborhood that the carjackers were looking? Please.
More than that stuff though, everyone acted like Archie Bunker. I thought the race theme was going to be handled more deftly. Instead, it felt like a bunch of actors spouting someone else’s sterotypical personal views on race.
Maybe Archie Bunker would be the only one to go off like Dillon did on the insurance lady,(first on the phone, then to her face), but anyone else you know? The whole point of racial tension would’ve been better served by showing the hate that goes on behind people’s backs, not to their face. It’s too easy to play that card.
A win for Crash and Hollywood pats itself on the back that it’s doing something, anything about race, even by profiling it poorly. It’s like the LA riots gave them street cred on depicting race because, ‘We lived through the horror in our hilltop homes without Pellegrino while the sreets burned.’ Guess that was their ‘Vietnam.’
I think The Constant Gardener was a better movie, and a better look at how insidious the race issue becomes with regards to drug companies. Also, American History X a few years ago was and is still a better look at race issues than Crash, with Ed Norton in an incredible role.
And, talk about robbed: The doc Murderball losing to a bunch of Penguins. Unreal.