About "Crash" Before I Crash
Well, I suppose it's inevitable that I would be blogging about movies a lot. But first....
I'm done! I have just completed a 2nd year of law school by turning in my Poverty Law paper! Hooray for me!
And hear this: I HATE the Bluebook. For those of you sane enough to not be in law school, the Bluebook is the system for citations that we law people use. Think of it as the MLA handbook....or the way the MLA handbook would be if it was re-written by Satan to torment us.
But I write not to make quasi-sacrilegious references to grammar, but to tell you of a new movie that you should see before it disappears from theaters like a flash. As the title indicates, I speak of the movie Crash.
Crash is Magnolia-esque in that it is an ensemble piece set in L.A. It's about race relations, the assumptions we all make about people who are "different" from us. A Persian family is called terrorists because people think they are Arabs. A racist cop terrorizes a Black couple he pulls over...only to encounter one of them again in circumstances neither of them would ever have foreseen. A White wife of a District Attorney lives in terror and isolation in their massive home after her car is stolen. Among the people she insults is a bald, tough looking Hispanic man...who goes home and plays with his 5-year-old daughter. It's an insightful and emotionally exhausting film about the stereotypes we all walk around with in our heads...and how they separate us from each other. I was most intrigued by an idealistic young cop played by Ryan Phillipe (a.k.a. Mr. Reese Witherspoon). He's the character we most identify with, disgusted by the bigotry he sees around him and trying to do the right thing. But even he isn't above unconscious racism.
I came out of it both hopeful and depressed.
This film won't be around long.....for all the stars and recognizable character actors in it (Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillipe, Brendan Frasier, Matt Dillon....even a cameo by Tony Danza) it doesn't have much commercial appeal or A-list stars to bring in the big audiences. Catch it before it disappears.
And while you're watching stuff...see the TV show Deadwood. I gotta do a post about Westerns sometime.
[Funny thing. The spellcheck for this blog does not recognize the word "blog."]
I'm done! I have just completed a 2nd year of law school by turning in my Poverty Law paper! Hooray for me!
And hear this: I HATE the Bluebook. For those of you sane enough to not be in law school, the Bluebook is the system for citations that we law people use. Think of it as the MLA handbook....or the way the MLA handbook would be if it was re-written by Satan to torment us.
But I write not to make quasi-sacrilegious references to grammar, but to tell you of a new movie that you should see before it disappears from theaters like a flash. As the title indicates, I speak of the movie Crash.
Crash is Magnolia-esque in that it is an ensemble piece set in L.A. It's about race relations, the assumptions we all make about people who are "different" from us. A Persian family is called terrorists because people think they are Arabs. A racist cop terrorizes a Black couple he pulls over...only to encounter one of them again in circumstances neither of them would ever have foreseen. A White wife of a District Attorney lives in terror and isolation in their massive home after her car is stolen. Among the people she insults is a bald, tough looking Hispanic man...who goes home and plays with his 5-year-old daughter. It's an insightful and emotionally exhausting film about the stereotypes we all walk around with in our heads...and how they separate us from each other. I was most intrigued by an idealistic young cop played by Ryan Phillipe (a.k.a. Mr. Reese Witherspoon). He's the character we most identify with, disgusted by the bigotry he sees around him and trying to do the right thing. But even he isn't above unconscious racism.
I came out of it both hopeful and depressed.
This film won't be around long.....for all the stars and recognizable character actors in it (Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillipe, Brendan Frasier, Matt Dillon....even a cameo by Tony Danza) it doesn't have much commercial appeal or A-list stars to bring in the big audiences. Catch it before it disappears.
And while you're watching stuff...see the TV show Deadwood. I gotta do a post about Westerns sometime.
[Funny thing. The spellcheck for this blog does not recognize the word "blog."]
posted by Ben at
1:15 AM
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