Americana Microcosm - The Best Picture

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2006)

This movie sat on top of my DVD player for weeks. Tonight, I figured "what the hell, I'll TIVO the Soprano's premiere, and see what all the fuss is about. I've been lucky enough to see all this years nominees for Best Picture, and I had to say I was pulling for Capote, until tonight
Crash is one of the most fascinating movies I've seen in years. Great ensemble-cast movies like this seem to keep sprouting up (Two Days in the Valley, Full Frontal, Happy Endings and I Heart Huckabees), but none speak to the audience (about the audience) like Crash. Heck; I nearly cried at one point (don't tell anyone). Cheadle, Phillippe, Bullock, Fraser (when was the last time you saw him in good movie), Dillon, Terrence "whoop, that Trick" Howard, and Thandie Newton all perform in ways that we haven't seen in years and what was up with Ludicrous - that kid can really act - somewhat!
Forget the philosophical reasoning behind Crash and you end up with a story built upon a city. Los Angeles isn't like any other town in America. Being a New Yorker and living in DC, having been to Orlando, Baltimore, Iowa City (so friendly, it's almost scary) and Chicago. You realize that people in LA don't really play by the same rules as the rest of us. Even though it's a perfect example of Microcosm Americana. No matter how, fervently we say "we're all Americans and we all deserve the respect and tolerance". There is still a lot of racist and intolerant BS that still carries on within our borders and towns. Racial tensions run so high, because everyone's insulated in their own comfy little worlds, and when someone from another world interacts with theirs, they freak. Crash, shows you a range of emotions between all these types of people, but unlike most ensemble movies, their stories don't intermingle perfectly to that pinhead point at the end. Loose ends are left, your left wondering, and the credits roll. Perfectly done.
It's a rare and exceptional feat to witness a film in which you are forced to look at yourself - what you believe - how we look and interact with our neighbors and even strangers; and ask why. Why do I act this way, why do I continue feel this way toward other human beings that have done nothing to me or mine?