tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post111798471509674000..comments2024-02-08T05:04:18.484-08:00Comments on J'S THEATER: Crash (a/k/a Crap)John Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1145398489216014122006-04-18T15:14:00.000-07:002006-04-18T15:14:00.000-07:00Actually I read a comment somewhere that summed up...Actually I read a comment somewhere that summed up the whole movie very succintly. In its core, Crash is still a white supremacy movie. Also, The Latino Locksmith wasn't treated realistically as well. What kind of father wouldn't at least call a cop when some maniac just pulled a trigger at your daughter? Even if it's empty shell?Zuraffohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11424954475833204159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1145398001528208652006-04-18T15:06:00.000-07:002006-04-18T15:06:00.000-07:00I would also want to point out that Matt Dillon is...I would also want to point out that Matt Dillon is also a sexual molester. And being a cop, that made him doubly unforgivable.Zuraffohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11424954475833204159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118495797147924512005-06-11T06:16:00.000-07:002005-06-11T06:16:00.000-07:00THANK YOU! I came out of the movie all full of ra...THANK YOU! I came out of the movie all full of ranting energy for the stupidity of virtually everything about it. I assumed it was by a very young first time director with some kind of connection in Hollywood. When I realized who the director was I was even more disgusted with the whole thing. I couldn't stop ranting at dinner but you outdid me. Feels very good to read your piece.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118062325748180802005-06-06T05:52:00.000-07:002005-06-06T05:52:00.000-07:00john: oh no, i know that what your review wasn't d...john: oh no, i know that what your review wasn't directed at me and we are in agreement..i.e. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME was such a great film, no? Laura Linney is so ridiculously underrated it's tragic...and IN THE BEDROOM should have gotten sissy spacek the best actress oscar, not that white man's masturbation watching a black women done doggiestyle by billy bob thornton in MONSTER'S BALL (you know what, though i've read a few articles that N'bushe Wright was the one that originally had the role, fought to make it WAY more three dimensional than it ended up {im sure once the script left N'bushe's managers hands and went through other folk, the realness was stripped of it, etc.}, and could have really BROUGHT it--and she was basically passed over for Halle Berry because she was too dark for the role...<BR/><BR/>you know, im kinda glad that N'bushe didnt do it after all...<BR/><BR/>but, digression aside, i expected A LOT out of CRASH and really was disappointed after all was said and done...<BR/><BR/>and YES, Brendan Fraser AND Ryan Phillippe are like this --><-- for me in terms of acting ability..next to NONE...Ryan Cantyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12957911952441418201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118031888177548272005-06-05T21:24:00.000-07:002005-06-05T21:24:00.000-07:00Reggie: I'd heard and read so many enthusiastic c...Reggie: I'd heard and read so many enthusiastic comments about this movie that I was eager to like it, but everything just felt...off. I admit that my tolerance for Hollywood's bullshit is very low these days, but I do actually like some films that come out of its studios. But this thing is just getting praised to the high heavens, and I don't get it. I agree with you about Black filmmakers and the lack of opportunities, but I think this goes for filmmakers of ALL backgrounds, including poor and working-class white people. I actually asked my students how often they saw on screen or in the media people like most of the folks running around Chicago--or even in downtown Evanston, and they admitted that they rarely did. The power structure and writing system in Hollywood makes such depictions very difficult; everything gets filtered through a particularly narrow perspective. Many of these folks mean well, but they just cannot imagine a world outside the one they've been acculturated in--their habitus frames their aesthetic vision. <BR/><BR/>I should have posted that late in the film, after I'd started whispering to C. about all kinds of stuff, this crackhead came into the theater, walks up the stairs to our row, steps in front of us and crosses all the way over to the other side, goes up one row, then crosses back before walking back down the stairs and heading out. That was more interesting than what was happening on screen. <BR/><BR/>Charles: I like Terrence Dashon Howard as well, though I wish they (somebody) would stop making him conk his hair, which it appears he does in HUSTLE AND FLOW. (Sigh, another movie about black pimps...). Let us see that nappy, reddish-brown head of hair! Even hanky heads wear fros these days. Thandie Newton's turn in BELOVED doesn't mar my appreciation of her, though I hear where you're coming from. I think she's really talented, but often gets bad roles, and truthfully, had Haggis handled her and Howard's horrible interaction with the police and the subsequent turn of events with more honesty and subtlety, it might have been really powerful. Larenz Tate, who is still so cute, just wasn't given much to work with, but I doubt the role will harm him. Hell, he got blown away, so that probably scored him some points with future film execs. Loretta Divine always plays the same part, but I did find her moment with Dillon comical. I just wish the writers had kept with the racial epithet program and let her go off on Dillon the way everyone else was just spewing his or her barely suppressed hate. She at least had good cause. <BR/><BR/>Ryan: Please don't think that my review was aimed at you. I know you liked the film the first time you saw it, and you weren't alone, so as with SIN CITY I'm quite willing to accept mine may be the minority viewpoint. I do think most of the actors did very decent jobs with the roles they were given. Miguel Peña, in addition to being sexy, Ludacris, Larenz, Dillon, Sandra Bullock, and Cheadle were pretty good. Brendan Fraser simply cannot act, he's a total cipher. Ryan Phillippe's about on equal footing. Thandie Newton and Terrence Howard were hamstrung by the roles. I'm not sure what to make of Esposito, or the woman who played Cheadle's mother. They didn't even let her play a realistic heroin user.<BR/><BR/>It must be very hard for someone like Haggis to imagine the complexity of certain types of Black people, particularly the Black middle-class and upper-middle-class people in the film, since he does depict Ludacris's character ironically and with more complexity than almost any other Black person's in the movie. I think the mother's being a heroin addict was an attempt to structure this complexity into the plot, but it just felt gratuitous; and with Howard, I wanted to buy his silence, his complicity, but then I thought to myself, even the people I know LIKE HIM, the brothas and sistas who DO play the game COMPLAIN when in the sanctity of their homes, especially if they're with other brothas and sistas; they may grin and jive when on the plantation, but when they step off it, even if they're damaged, something else often comes out--that is, if they've held onto some shred of who they are (and I'm not saying that's one sole thing, or some kind of fixed essence, but you get where I'm coming from, right?). Haggis basically turned every one of the Black folks into caricatures, though, and this pissed me off, because I'm tired of seeing this happen again and again. I'm not saying Black or Latino or Asian etc. directors always get it right either, but I'd like to see their takes more often. And sometimes a White director can capture something pretty fresh: tink of Chiwetel Ejiofor's character in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, which IS complex, even as it plays on longstanding notions of African immigrants, or the very powerful (and rarely screened) movie NOTHING BUT A MAN, whose director was white. <BR/><BR/>I agree that the film you describe may be out there, and it could be made, but probably not greenlighted and bankrolled the way this one was. But it's not totally inconceivable. Think about a film like THE GLASS SHIELD, by Charles Burnett. It's a lot more stylized, but also so much truer than this one ever will be, but it got no play, no promotion, nothing. I know, I know, most people don't want to see that kind of film, or most of the films I really admire, and I acknowledge this, but let's meet halfway. IN THE BEDROOM, for example, or YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, or CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, or something that matches artistic depth with a more popular approach. It doesn't all or always have to be THE KILLER OF SHEEP or DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST or SOPHIE'S CHOICE or A TOUCH OF EVIL or ALI, FEAR EATS THE SOUL or L'ECLISSE, etc. Or even GHOST DOG--that is one of my favorite films! LOL<BR/><BR/>EJ, I think I started into tallying all the nonsense after the first few scenes; I would much rather have just sat and enjoyed the film. There's so much deeper analysis that White gets into in his review, too. As I noted to Ryan above, I do believe people may sincerely enjoy the film, especially the acting, but what it was enacting onscreen kept me from focusing on it. I also wonder what Cheadle would think, given that he starred with Jeffrey Wright in Suzan-Lori Park's TOPDOG, UNDERDOG, which like all of her work is full of considerable nuance, and in the case of that particular play, a much more direct structure and realistic template. It was very moving, and despite its evident artifice, still much truer to life than this movie. <BR/><BR/>Thanks to all of you for reading and dialoguing!John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118027377022849842005-06-05T20:09:00.000-07:002005-06-05T20:09:00.000-07:00I'm thinking that I need to see Crash again myself...I'm thinking that I need to see Crash again myself. While I was moved by the acting more or less, I didn't allow myself to go deep into the analysis of the film. <BR/><BR/>Since Don Cheadle was instrumental in the development of this movie, I'd really like to know what his reaction would be to the questions you and Ryan raised. It's true - these questions should be raised.EJ Flavorshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07360162790142339126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118023673933721322005-06-05T19:07:00.000-07:002005-06-05T19:07:00.000-07:00hey john...i actually agree with you..i saw crash ...hey john...<BR/><BR/>i actually agree with you..i saw crash again, because i was one of the friends who raved about it...<BR/><BR/>the first time..i was more or less moved by the performances in the case..specifically, the black actors....<BR/><BR/>but watching it again...not only did i see what you saw, it was angering to me...<BR/><BR/>why does hollywood redeem white racists?<BR/>why are black men who are in positions of power extreme stereotypes ( "almost" white or very pro black, etc.) and never fully realized human beings?<BR/>why are black women most always sexually molested/assaulted? and whyare the perps usually white men?<BR/><BR/>why do i fear that if a black writer or writer of colored wanted to explore race relations in a similar fashion OR just explore the topic in a film...he OR she OR they would be shut out, i.e. not get funding for the film?<BR/><BR/>though i did think the performances were very good (and yes, i was quite annoyed by christine's histronics at the TV set {after you berate your husband, you dot hat quick of a 180 at his job begging for him to come back? a more realistic scene would have been for her to still feel as she does yet CONSIDER his feelings, etc.), i now feel like somehow i'vebeen duped of a good film...<BR/><BR/>i do believe there is a potentially deep and intense film that could have prodded me to THINK about race relations and how it was presented on film and an intelligently written script which detailed this very subject expertly...<BR/><BR/>but, i will admit that CRASH isn't it....and i don't see one coming anytime soon...Ryan Cantyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12957911952441418201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118012728165731352005-06-05T16:05:00.000-07:002005-06-05T16:05:00.000-07:00I agree with you completely John. I too went to se...I agree with you completely John. I too went to see the movie after several of my friends and associates raved on and on about it. And found it contrived, painfully sentimental, and such a fucking production of liberal white folks patting themselves on the back. I do like Terrance Howard a lot, despite this film, and I am curious to see him in Hustle and Flow. Thandie Newton is growing on me too. Though everytime I see her now, I can only think of Beloved and well, it at times destroys the moment. It's interesting that Lorenz Tate would use this film as being part of his comeback. Wasn't he on the verge in the 90s or something? I don't think this film will be a high point in his career. Oh yeah and I did think that shit with Lorreta Divine was kind of funny.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11122973.post-1118011123670243862005-06-05T15:38:00.000-07:002005-06-05T15:38:00.000-07:00Damn, John...tell us how you and C *really* feel! ...Damn, John...tell us how you and C *really* feel! Wow...I will say, however, that sometimes movies like this truly show how out of touch with reality most whites are...and increases the sadness I feel at how difficult it is for filmmakers of color to get funded while white dreck gets the green light all the time...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com