Crash

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2009)

Hated by many on the principle that it somehow stole the Academy Award for Best Picture from Brokeback Mountain, I consider it the best of the nominees that year.
Further dismissed by some as an "after school special" as if a film with a social conscience that presents itself in a mainstream, mass-market fashion is a bad thing, Crash certainly doesn't win any points for originality but it's solidly entertaining throughout, it rarely sinks into melodrama, and is a frequently very powerful portrait of a society rotting from the disease of racism.
It does tend to overplay the "Everyone's at least a little bit racist" card and could have benefited from a lot more subtlety - it's occasionally very heavy-handed and obvious in making its sometimes dubious points - but I don't see anything in the film resembling a stereotype and that's a rare thing for a film of this kind. The ill-judged early comic relief scenes with the two carjackers are unfortunate and don't sit well with the generally sombre tone, but at least they're entertaining in their own right.