is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Crash collides with XXX.
Crash collides with XXX.
Yesterday I saw XXX: State of the Union. Today I saw a movie that is the absolute opposite of XXX, if XXX is the movie that gives us racial stereotypes and difficult decisions and human relations and plot-related conflicts that are too simplistic to be believed. Today I saw Crash, and man is it TOUGH!
First of all, in my defense, I saw another movie today not because I am a huge slacker but because my car was supposed to take 2.5 hours to be fixed, then 4.5 hours, and now, after waiting around for 7.5 hours, I have just arrived back at home without my car. At hour 3.5 I went to the movies, after I shopped at Target, ate a crappy pizza hut �personal pizza� ("mind your own business, this is MY PIZZA!") and graded a large number of papers.
Crash brutally shows how hard it is just to be a human being trying to live with other human beings. In particular it shows just how hard it is to do that in these here United States at the present moment. All the characters are faced with impossible choices, and all their flawed motivations and actions are, upon examination, much more complex than someone on the outside looking in would ever guess. No one is just a racist or just a bad guy or even just a good guy, no matter what you think of him or her at first. Plus Crash is one of those stories that, Magnolia-style, weaves together many different narratives and characters into one tale that unfolds slowly, so that you never know all at once whose story is related to whose, and why and how. I always appreciate a film that does that well. The large cast of this one includes the always excellent Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Ludacris, Thandie Newton and Ryan Phillippe, most of whom play interesting and complicated characters. I do recommend this movie to just about anyone. My only complaint is that one thing in particular that occurs during the course of the plotline struck me as �off� for the character who did it, but I won�t say more because it�s a spoiler.
Anyway, it was so funny to see this movie the day after seeing XXX, given how diametrically opposed the two movies� attempts at characterization, plot, and overall �ethos� are. XXX sets up an improbable conflict and solves it with such ease that its writers clearly never even imagined that the audience would suspend disbelief in its narrative. Crash shows us predictable reactions and judgments emerging out of charged situations, then shows us why even those reactions and judgments are much more complicated than they seem, and then makes us expect certain terrible outcomes, only to give us outcomes that are entirely different�some of them terrible, others not. Like I said, it is very worth seeing, but if you go, be ready for some tense times, and probably some tears as well. This movie is not easy, but it is worth the difficulty.
In sum, this week's movie guide as offered to you by me: see XXX if you want escapism that requires no (in fact could not stand unless you refuse to employ) critical thought; see Crash if you want more than that and are willing to take it on.
For those of you leaning towards the small-tube end of the viewing-pleasure spectrum, I recommend that you stop watching Desperate Housewives and just read Evany�s recaps of it on Television without Pity (dot com) instead. They are hilarious, and so much more entertaining than the show ever is.
6:23 p.m. - May 13, 2005
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