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Paul Haggis, Crash
After Babel, Happy Endings and 21 Grams, another example of hyperlink cinema, from the creator of due South and apparently one of the writers on Casino Royale (the bits when Bond starts licking mud on tyres). And whilst I'm now angling to get back to linear narratives, I'm glad I saw this.
Crash tells a number of stories in the Inland Empire - a couple of cops, the DA and his wife, a director and his wife, a locksmith and his daughter (and wife), a shopkeeper and his daughter (and wife), a couple of hoods (and one of their mothers), which take place over a couple of days. The linking theme is race, racism and intergration, and the film is both careful to portray racism (Matt Dillon is excellent in this, Sandra Bullock is good, and Brendan Fraser is cast against type as the D.A.) and to not simply see this as a problem of (and for) white people. There's also a commentary on how blacks can oppress themselves through raps lyrics. The stories nudge up against each other and, whilst it does feel a little small town, it tied together better than 21 Grams and Babel did.
Don Cheedle gets the best lines, including the one that explains the title of the film - but he is also a producer on the film and rank has its privileges: "It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
I suppose I was left in retrospect that it was a story about men rather than humans - things happened to the women rather than them doing much - but it was an impressive take on race.
Crash tells a number of stories in the Inland Empire - a couple of cops, the DA and his wife, a director and his wife, a locksmith and his daughter (and wife), a shopkeeper and his daughter (and wife), a couple of hoods (and one of their mothers), which take place over a couple of days. The linking theme is race, racism and intergration, and the film is both careful to portray racism (Matt Dillon is excellent in this, Sandra Bullock is good, and Brendan Fraser is cast against type as the D.A.) and to not simply see this as a problem of (and for) white people. There's also a commentary on how blacks can oppress themselves through raps lyrics. The stories nudge up against each other and, whilst it does feel a little small town, it tied together better than 21 Grams and Babel did.
Don Cheedle gets the best lines, including the one that explains the title of the film - but he is also a producer on the film and rank has its privileges: "It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
I suppose I was left in retrospect that it was a story about men rather than humans - things happened to the women rather than them doing much - but it was an impressive take on race.