My 411th Review: Interweaving stories of race in modern LA

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2011)

I have seen Crash three times now and each time its Robert Altman approach improves - the way the stories interweave, the fact that it is addressing rather than disguising race, and the way the story impacts remains powerful and effective.
Many of the negative reviewers seems to find it akin to soap opera or like a Lifetime movie; I disagree, though it does resort to some cliché in parts, the effect of the film rises above any simplistic notions of happy endings or trite messages, and tries to state and explore, nearly always with great success, the current state of race relations in the US.
Did Crash deserve its Oscar, is it the best film of the year? Perhaps not, but what it is, is a brave attempt through non-linear stories, to portray a very complex issue, in a way that has not been done often before in US cinema and for that reason alone its worth the award and worth viewing.