Film Review - Crash (the new one that is)

My rating: 5 out of 5

“It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In LA, 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. “

Last night I went to see Crash… it was quite simply fantastic, it was deep and heavy plot driven movie about a interconnecting web of connections between a small group of people and how in the space of about 48 hours their lives all crash together. It is also film which focuses of racism, of all types. To be honest I feel that the phrase “a film about racism” is perhaps too loaded a term for this movie. It looks deeply at various racial issues on all sides of the divide, how people continue to perpetrate the stereotype even whilst they complain about being stereotyped and lots of other race issues.

The acting is superb from everyone to the point where you can even feel some level of sympathy for a racist, not for who he is or what he says, but rather for the situation in his personal life which in many ways was the trigger for his racist beliefs. The direction of the film lends itself well to the mass of interwoven plot threads that pull closer and closer together. The plot twists were well placed and used sparingly and added to the drama that was unfolding rather than confusing matters.

Basically if you get a chance see this film. It is a solid piece of filmmaking and after watching it I had the mental satisfaction equivalent to having just eaten a top-notch meal. It has a lot of swearing and one nude scene but even with that I would recommend it for anyone who would like to use a movie to explore race issues within a group environment even if it is with teenagers. It is rated at a 15, although if you want to exercise caution I’d say for 18’s and above.