Crash, 2004 - movie

Okay, so I finally watched Crash. I'm a little behind on this one - all the rest of you watched in in 04 or maybe 05, so I thought I'd best catch up.

And sure, it was neat. Spoiler alert: I especially like the scene where the cop pulls the woman out of the car.

But it was so predictable and it relied on so many stereotypes to make its didactic point...I mean, can't we teach that racism is bad in some less mundane way?

Philosophy tirade...I guess maybe not, though. I work in software (e-learning) and we develop to the lowest (or one of the lowest) common denominator, because we have to. So while I may appreciate highbrow intelligentsia, most people...don't. And who am I kidding anyway? We all know I'm pretentious enough to pretend to like lots of things I don't understand. Like sushi, for example...there you go, J and H, I don't really care about sushi! I'm so embarrassed, but it's true. I just sort of like sushi. In fact, I'm seasoning my cast iron skillet right now - with Crisco! Hahaha! So maybe Crash was made to make a point for those who prefer being smacked on the nose with their realities.

Okay, back to the acting. Well-played, Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton. You were the only not-one-dimensional characters in the movie, and Thandie, you were actually convincing. Spoiler again! I'm recently discovering something about the sexual objectification/exploitation/abuse of women: men know how powerful it is too! I always thought only women knew how awful it is, but men do too...and that's a big part of why they do it, to hurt other men. That's a really stupid thing for someone who studied this stuff for ten years to admit, but there it is. Maybe I just needed some space to see it...so yeah, Thandie, right on - I was totally convinced when you were in that car, and I felt what you were feeling - FUCK YOU, Matt Dillon cop!

Sorry. Got a little carried away there. So, overall, maybe a C+/B-, but Thandie gets an A+ and Matt gets an A-.

Oh, one more thing, my high school senior English teacher went on this rant about Braveheart and Beaches and other tearjerker pulloutallthestops movies about this time in 1995. He was so right. Use your brains, directors, and I at least will appreciate you more.

It's worth adding to your Netflix if you haven't seen it, but not worth moving to Priority 1.