“Crash” is one of those movies that some people “get” and other people don’t. You have to be of a certain mind to accept the extreme coincidences in the movie. There are also a lot of people who believe that racism no longer exists in America (my personal experience and that of many of my friends notwithstanding). So those folks just plain object to the whole concept. Etc.
But I “get” the movie and such. But I also wasn’t significantly impressed about most of it. “Good Night and Good Luck” is a a much better movie. “Transamerica”, “Capote” and “Brokeback Mountain” are also somewhat better. (And that’s without going into the “History of Violence”, “The Squid and the Whale”, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” type films.)
I was impressed by Don Cheadle’s work in it. And I don’t just mean acting. It really is his film.
Overall, I don’t even feel it is the best movie with the title “Crash.”
Crash was the best movie I’ve seen in at least five years, so, yes, it was the best of last year. One of Oscar’s better picks and one of about three I wholeheatedly agree with.
I only saw **Crash ** & Brokeback, of the twe Brokeback was better. Watching Crash I thought I almost felt I was watching a PBS Frontline documentary. They seemed to pull out every thing that could go wrong and put them in 2 hours. Good, you bet, but it just felt forced to me.
I liked Crash and I think its win is another indicator of the growing influence of African Americans in Hollywood, especially in Academy voting since 2001. Prior to that year, an African American couldn’t barely buy a nomination, much less a win in any “major” category: since then, four acting awards have gone to African Americans and last night a rap song won for best song!
Essentially, if you’re looking at this from an “issues” perspective, you had two movies that split the gay rights vote (and I’m assuming that Capote can be seen as a “gay rights” kind of movie) and only one movie about racism.
No, I don’t think it deserved best picture. Personally, I would have picked Capote, but I figured Brokeback had the best chance. Even Good Night and Good Luck impressed me more than Crash. I didn’t see Munich.
I’d think it’s a bit naive for anyone who has TIVO’ed the Academy Awards to come into Cafe Society and not expect something to be spoiled from a live event.
I saw three of the nominees this year, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Munich. I very much enjoyed all three of them, and thought all three were deserving of their nominations. One of my favorite things about movies is the “deconstruction” phase afterwards, discussing the themes and ideas in the film, and all three of these movies, to me, excelled in that aspect as well.
That said, I think of the three Crash was my favorite, and I’m glad it won. Leaving all discussions of the plot and caricatures aside (I think Ebert explained those better than I ever could), I thought all the performances were great in the movie, even from actors I previously thought wooden (Ryan Philippe), or actors who I never thought would have had talent (Ludacris - who, IMO, stole the show with his first monologue). And, of course, the always sublime Don Cheadle.
I was bowled over by Good Night, and Good Luck, but I knew it was just too small a movie to win any of the big prizes. And it’s definitely bad luck for David Strathairn to have made it the same year as Capote. I thought his performance was the better one in a better movie, but everybody else seems to disagree. In another year, his immersion into Murrow would have had everyone salivating.
Crash falls somewhere in between those two. (Haven’t yet seen BM or Munich. Life happened.) I can’t believe all the people who are decrying the movie for being unrealistic or over-the-top or too coincidental when they find those exact attributes acceptable or even what they love in a million lesser movies. Crash stripped away all the excuses usually made for characters’ behaviors and left them pinned splayed to the page in all their fascinating ugly glory.
I have no trouble at all celebrating Crash as Best Picture in a world in which Chicago and Gladiator got those honors. Those pictures are already deservedly forgotten. Crash will be remembered and talked about, and perhaps even imitated for a long time to come. Plenty good enough for Hollywood.
No you’re not, or you wouldn’t have come in the thread just to leave a shit. If you want to debate whether awards should be given out to movies at all, start another thread. We were discussing whether Crash was deserving of best picture.
I saw Crash and Brokeback Mountain, and I will have to be counted as one of those people who didn’t like Crash. The coincedences were just too much, too ridiculuous. Especially for a city as spread out as LA. Perhaps if I didn’t live here, that wouldn’t bother me as much, but it really did.
On other hand, while I think that Brokeback should have won the Best Picture, the buzz I heard here in LA was that Crash would win, so I wasn’t suprised at all when it did.
