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So, tonight at about midnight I finally got around to watching Crash and I can't say I particularly liked it.
I would like to say first off that all the actors in it were amazing. A couple of them are solid and I knew would be good - Don Cheadle, first off, who's always incredible and was no less so in this film - but Michael Pena and Terrence Howard were real breakouts for me, I thought they were fantastic. And actually sympathetic, which is my first problem with the film.
I'm a character-driven moviegoer. The thing about this movie was that it had potential for great characters but ruined them for me by trying too hard to paint them as sympathetic, which only ended up making me pissed off at them when they did the wrong thing rather than serving to make me understand WHY they did it. The whole movie felt very forced to me. The slow-mo scenes set to music with no diegetic sound, the characters crashing into each other, the monologue at the beginning of the film explaining the whole thing. It was also a really intense film - the only time I relaxed through the whole thing was in the scene between the locksmith and his daughter.
Of course, I have to admit that going into the film I had a prejudice already - I don't think much of the racism theme. Now, I don't live in L.A., and I suppose I've had what you could call a sheltered life when it comes to racism. I grew up and went to school largely in international communities where race was about the last thing one worried about when meeting people because most everybody was of a different race or nationality to you. But does anyone on my friends list obsess over race the way almost every character in this movie does? I get it, the movie had a theme, but I find it hard to believe that a random selection of people from the city who all happened to affect each other were all talking about race for the whole two-day period over which the movie was set. We get very detailed insights into how every single character views race and almost nothing else about their personalities unless they basically say it to the screen. I just found it *frustrating.* I knew I would before I flicked the movie on, but it didn't manage to suck me in and then sucker punch me. The only person I can honestly say I cared about was the locksmith.
Maybe I wasn't as affected by it because it didn't actually serve to force me to look at myself and see my own prejudices. I know I have them, but I guess I'd figured that out before I saw the movie or something, because mostly I was just cranky when people were all "Oh wow, it turns out I really AM racist." Bah, I don't know.
I also don't think it's as great a movie as it's been built up to be. The editing was clever but the direction was frequently frustrating and it was, as I've mentioned, very unrelenting. The music was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. There are other politically-driven ensemble dramas I've enjoyed much, much more, although as a genre it's never really grabbed me.
Two parts did crack me up, but I'm not sure they were supposed to:
1. "Because we've got guns?"
2. "I'm not talking to you unless you speak American!" followed immediately by a Welsh band singing as the credits came on. I love me some Stereophonics.
Conclusion: Actors good, Michael Pena, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard and Ryan Phillippe all very pretty boys, but I'd rather see cowboys making out kthanks. And I missed Tony Danza somehow!!! I mustn't have been paying attention all that well.
6 out of 10.
Feel free to discuss in comments.
ETA: if D:LA2 were about 2 or 3 weeks later I could come :(
Green Queen
I would like to say first off that all the actors in it were amazing. A couple of them are solid and I knew would be good - Don Cheadle, first off, who's always incredible and was no less so in this film - but Michael Pena and Terrence Howard were real breakouts for me, I thought they were fantastic. And actually sympathetic, which is my first problem with the film.
I'm a character-driven moviegoer. The thing about this movie was that it had potential for great characters but ruined them for me by trying too hard to paint them as sympathetic, which only ended up making me pissed off at them when they did the wrong thing rather than serving to make me understand WHY they did it. The whole movie felt very forced to me. The slow-mo scenes set to music with no diegetic sound, the characters crashing into each other, the monologue at the beginning of the film explaining the whole thing. It was also a really intense film - the only time I relaxed through the whole thing was in the scene between the locksmith and his daughter.
Of course, I have to admit that going into the film I had a prejudice already - I don't think much of the racism theme. Now, I don't live in L.A., and I suppose I've had what you could call a sheltered life when it comes to racism. I grew up and went to school largely in international communities where race was about the last thing one worried about when meeting people because most everybody was of a different race or nationality to you. But does anyone on my friends list obsess over race the way almost every character in this movie does? I get it, the movie had a theme, but I find it hard to believe that a random selection of people from the city who all happened to affect each other were all talking about race for the whole two-day period over which the movie was set. We get very detailed insights into how every single character views race and almost nothing else about their personalities unless they basically say it to the screen. I just found it *frustrating.* I knew I would before I flicked the movie on, but it didn't manage to suck me in and then sucker punch me. The only person I can honestly say I cared about was the locksmith.
Maybe I wasn't as affected by it because it didn't actually serve to force me to look at myself and see my own prejudices. I know I have them, but I guess I'd figured that out before I saw the movie or something, because mostly I was just cranky when people were all "Oh wow, it turns out I really AM racist." Bah, I don't know.
I also don't think it's as great a movie as it's been built up to be. The editing was clever but the direction was frequently frustrating and it was, as I've mentioned, very unrelenting. The music was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. There are other politically-driven ensemble dramas I've enjoyed much, much more, although as a genre it's never really grabbed me.
Two parts did crack me up, but I'm not sure they were supposed to:
1. "Because we've got guns?"
2. "I'm not talking to you unless you speak American!" followed immediately by a Welsh band singing as the credits came on. I love me some Stereophonics.
Conclusion: Actors good, Michael Pena, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard and Ryan Phillippe all very pretty boys, but I'd rather see cowboys making out kthanks. And I missed Tony Danza somehow!!! I mustn't have been paying attention all that well.
6 out of 10.
Feel free to discuss in comments.
ETA: if D:LA2 were about 2 or 3 weeks later I could come :(
Green Queen
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Your boy is PRETTY, though.
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Hmmm... in honor of all this, I think I'll post a Terrence picspam later today. :D
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That being said, I thought the point of it was good, and didn't really have that many complaints about it. The acting was fantastic. Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton particularly stood out for me.
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They were both great, especially in that car scene. I think Matt Dillon is largely underrated as an actor.
I think my biggest problem was the point of it. Or maybe I missed the point of it. It just seemed very negative and bitchy about race to me.
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On a more superficial note, I'm a ridiculous Michael Pena fangirl, and along with Terrence's character, the locksmith is my favourite of the whole film. And they're pretty. ;P
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I almost wonder if it's only nominated for an Oscar because they thought it was the best contrast to BBM (i.e. race issue vs. gay issue). It's not a bad movie but I don't see why there would be any other reason that it's being hailed as the movie to possibly give BBM a surprise shove out of the Best Picture win. If anything, I would say that Good Night and Good Luck had a better chance of doing that than Crash.