Crash

I found Crash thoroughly entertaining, as accurate a microcosm of racial politics as you're likely to see. But charges of "realism" are bogus. It's not shades-of-grey as much as it's alternating black and white. A character like Sandra Bullock's rich white woman is petty and obnoxious at one moment, weak and needy at the next. Ryan Phillippe is a hero at one moment, shady at the next. Matt Dillon is a racist MF at one moment, and a genuine hero at the next. It adds up, but you have to take the long view in order for anything to add up.

I'm OK with plot contrivances, like the coincidental appearance of everyone in everyone else's story arcs. But I'm not OK with contrived dialogue, like Chris "Ludacris" Bridges' speech when he and Larenz Tate first appear. Those moments in which people seemed a little too conscious of their own position in life... there's gotta be a better way to accomplish that.

The acting is what elevates Crash to relevance. Everyone did a great job, though the quartet of Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe and Matt Dillon do the best, most complex work in the film. Of particular note are Dillon, who seems born to play his role, and Howard. Based on his performance here, I see what the big deal about Terrence Howard is about. He owns the screen whenever he appears, like he's ready to explode at any moment.

All in all, pretty good. I'd give Crash... ohhhhh... 3 out of 5 Hitlers.

        

Funny that in a movie that claims to leave nobody unharmed, the Jews made it through the movie without being stereotyped. Maybe the sequel will start hating on people for their religions instead of their races. At any rate, the Jews' victory finally puts them on the scoreboard, where the score is 723,879,234,879,287,435,287,345-1 in favor of Goyim.