Fido the Yak

In any real movie, people walk out. They brush past you, spilling popcorn. You make eye contact, but it doesn't last. And you want to know what they're thinking. You're thinking like, it can't be completely unlike what I'm thinking, can it? Maybe I'd walk out too if only....

But these thoughts aren't quite original. What the bloggers are saying about Crash:

• The Pop Culture Addict: "I should mention there were quite a few walkouts during Crash which I liked in that typically, I find it interesting to think about what causes people to walk out of movies. My brother thought it was because people were offended but I thought it was because they wanted an action flick and it turned out to be an arthouse type thing. Anyway, most people stayed."




• Wholesome Goodness: "Perhaps Haggis meant for us to get this fleeting sense of the multitudes of plots and players: he simply wanted us to crash into each one to get that brief sense of touch. Each character collides with another, or with him or herself, or with the environment in which they find themselves, in every scene, whether mentally, physically, or emotionally."




• As Little as Possible: "The movie's narrative is deep and wide, and it falls back on itself many times, and there are so many racial and moral conundrums, and so many awful and frustrating and beautiful parts that keep one-upping each other."




• Matt Dentler: "I would sooner call Crash a film made up of amazingly powerful moments, than call it an amazingly powerful film."




• CT's Finest: "What Haggis asks us to consider is that in this country where we are so disconnected from one another, there is quite possibly some cosmic connection that binds a random group of us together where the fate of one becomes the fate of all."




• Chutry Experiment: "I think that what I found most frustrating about this film was the 'shallowness' of its characters. By that, I mean that virtually every character seems to have two sides, one side heroic and tolerant and the other side fearful and, quite often, racist."




• Chutry Experiment: "I'm beginning to think that my original review was far too generous."




• Maurice Broaddus: "At some point, we, as a people, 'lost our frame of reference.' We live in a multi-cultural world, whether we want to call it a melting pot, tossed salad, or whatever new paradigm we choose to live under. We don’t often get the humiliation of going through life always being treated as a suspect, guilty until proven innocent. We don’t often get the humiliation of casual victimization. We don’t often get how our reactions to those constant humiliations fuel our anger and further hatred. Where even what should have been a binding moment of shared commonality can instead have tragic consequences."




• No Cyberhate: "The rest of the women in the film are similarly sexualized and/or frigid, shrill two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs of real women. Clearly, Haggis was so preoccupied with racial politics here that he couldn't be bothered to address the intricacies of gender politics as well."




• Rire et Apprendre: "I think the naysayers claim to be 'beaten over the head' because this topic makes them squirm."




• Vince Patton: "Crash is a rare ensemble piece. It is magnificently efficient. It is a collage of brief scenes and verbal exchanges that are at times shockingly brutal. Crash is comprised of moments---moments of little detail but relevatory importance, for the power of what is clearly spoken and even what is not lingers well into the next scene. Crash is as much a study of how racism affects the lives of people in LA as a riveting display of the way inner angst triggers race-based acts that are shocks to humanity itself."




• Life and the Movies: "The film has a few unusually poignant moments that are a testament to strong filmmaking, but I don't think that the film is ultimately as successful in doing what it wants to do. It got me thinking about humanity in general, but not about racism."




• Brandon Fibbs: "The one thing that occurs consistently in every encounter the film presents is that peoples' assumptions prevent them from seeing the actual person standing before them. They take moments at face value, forgetting that all incidents have steps that led the person there—steps which they may not have ordered or steps that represent a transitory and atypical stumble. No one knows the whole story. All have fallen short and are in desperate need of lavish grace."




• Fringe: "Without a doubt, Haggis holds up a very large lens to magnify the myriad of racial prejudices which guide not just politics and civics, but interpersonal relationships that string together to form a massive chain of humanity at its darkest and most despairing. Haggis spares no one, but he doesn't villify anyone either, letting each character carry the weight of his or her prejudices and fears as a matter of course--the realization that these are people like any one of us is a startling and effective tactic, one which Haggis uses to point out how racial hatred is built upon the foundations of human hearts and minds."




• Heathen Commando Mission: "the violence and vitriol on screen made me feel so tense I wanted to throw up."




• From the Salmon: "On the surface, Haggis’s film is wholly concerned with the pervasive evils of racism, or rather, Racism. And to this end, it’s about as subtle as a Lincoln Navigator doing 65 through downtown LA."

posted by Fido the Yak at 1:12 PM.