More Movie Fun

The nicest thing I can say about Crash is that it plays like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie gone horribly wrong.  (I realized this after the montage of disconnected Angelenos gazing forlornly out their windows to the accompaniment of some sweetly-sung dirge, but before the miraculous precipitation that ends the film.)  But that's too kind; Crash may be yet another movie intertwining the lives of a handful of socially and racially disparate citizens to offer a searching social commentary on How We Live, but it has none of Anderson's subtlety, humor, or joy.

This is a movie whose idea of dramatic tension is a father giving his little girl an imaginary invisible cloak that supposedly protects her from harm.  Its idea of symbolism is a detective pulling a Saint Christopher statue out of the dirt.  Its idea of epiphany is a black car thief deciding not to enter the slave trade.  And its idea of theme is making nearly every character an outspoken racist.  Of course, it's pretty easy to be a racist when all the other characters are walking stereotypes, from the fat indignant black female bureaucrat to the Asian woman who can't drive to the furious entitled yuppie housewife to the trigger-happy white cop.

The movie is basically a sincere version of the racial confrontation game Michael Scott inflicts on his staff in the American version of The Office:  hit everybody with their own worst stereotypes and lean back with arms smugly folded, confident that you've just opened a dialogue that will heal America's racial divide.  But Steve Carell knows Michael Scott is a self-important ass, whereas Paul Haggis and the thirteen other producers of Crash all proudly slap the "Martin Luther King" card right on their own foreheads as they wallow in our hatred.

Comments

[Ian Brill]

I saw P.T. Anderson speak and a lot of members of the audience were decrying Crash as a rip-off of Magnolia. Anderson didn't see the film so he offered no comment.

I liked your comparison to Michael Scott's tolerance excersise. I think a lot of artists let their smugness and arrogance get the best of them.

[Marc]

Ian once again wins the prize for quickest commenter on the draw!

Thanks, Ian.

[Chuck T.]

Y'know, upon initial viewing, I was more cheesed about calling the bullets the shopkeeper's daughter (or whoever) bought as blanks. (My wife asks if I always count bullets as well, but that's a separate problem.)

[Chad]

Full disclosure before my comment: because I don't go to theatres, I have seen neither Crash or Brokeback Mountain.

I read in several sources that, despite the awards it did receive, Brokeback Mountain not getting Best Picture was a sign of institutionalized homophobia. I was not at all convinced. But the more I read about how poor Crash is, or at least how much of a standard Hollywood genericum opus it is, I start to wonder...

[Marc]

I try not to read too much significance into the Oscars; being admitted into any club that would have Dances With Wolves and American Beauty simply can't be that much of an honor. But the one thing they are good for is reading the tastes of the movie industry, and I have to admit I had exactly the same reaction you did. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain either, but I'm sure it can't be any worse than Crash.

Hollywood was clearly in a mood to reward itself for making serious pictures about serious social ills this year. (Then again, it's in that mood most years, except for when it wants to reward itself for making lavish, big-budget productions that rake in money hand over fist to show it hasn't lost its touch with the common man.) The odd thing is, voters had no shortage of choices that fit that bill among the nominees. Crash's victory probably indicates the Academy wanted to see itself as hip as well as socially conscious; this is probably the same reason, the only reason that an utterly generic hip-hop song about how hard it is to be a pimp won for best song. (Against some pretty scant competition. Didn't Randy Newman crap out anything about singing dolls last year?)

And homophobia? More likely an overcompensating desire not to be seen as too gay-friendly... which functionally works out to the same thing.

For all I know, Brokeback Mountain and Good Night and Good Luck split the Earnest Socially Conscious vote leaving Crash to slip in with solid support from traditionally the strongest constituency, Fifty-Year-Old White Guys Trying to Speak Jive. But I'm thinking many of those voters were looking to plant the Martin Luther King card on their own foreheads. That Crash should also be Not Gay--guess which major Los Angeles demographic is conspicuously absent from the movie?--well, that couldn't have hurt either.

[Chad]

Against some pretty scant competition. Didn't Randy Newman crap out anything about singing dolls last year?

Ha! Probably.

And homophobia? More likely an overcompensating desire not to be seen as too gay-friendly... which functionally works out to the same thing.

Exactly. And honestly I don't see from what I've read and heard about the film what was so revolutionary about it, apart from having attractive, star du jour actors play gay/bisexual men. They've been making films with Brokeback Mountain's plot for decades, although I guess I should be thankful that they're not really churning out insanely anti-gay films like Waiting for Mr. Goodbar, The Fan, and Cruising anymore (although maybe once again I'm speaking too soon).