Like the cars on L.A.’s freeways, the lives of the characters in “Crash” ($29.98) inevitably pass each other and sometimes intersect and, yes, wreak destruction on one another.
An ensemble piece co-written and directed by Paul Haggis, who wrote the screenplay for “Million Dollar Baby,” “Crash” shares a vision of the City of Angels as an overgrown suburb populated by people seething with hate and mistrust, unable to see past their fears and racial prejudices.
After their SUV has been stolen at gunpoint by two young black men in a fashionable part of town, Jean (Sandra Bullock) complains to her husband (Brendan Fraser), “I’m angry all the time, and I don’t know why.” He happens to be the city’s district attorney but frets more about what this will mean in votes from the African-American community.
The film opens with a fender bender involving an L.A. detective named Graham (Don Cheadle) and his partner (and lover) Ria (Jennifer Esposito). While Graham muses about the impersonal nature of the city, Ria, who is Latina, and an Asian woman get into a shouting match in which race arises. It sets the tone for the film, which then flashes back a day to when the carjacking and other events unfold.
Before the theft, the carjackers argue that they were discriminated against by a waitress at dinner. Afterward, Jean insists the locks be changed again on the house because the locksmith looks like a “gangbanger.” Two other threads are woven into the story, one involving an Iranian shopkeeper who’s buying a gun because he feels threatened.
In the second, a racist L.A. cop (Matt Dillon) pulls over an affluent black couple and takes liberties with the woman (Thandie Newton).
You know none of this will end well. Graham and Ria were pulling up to a crime scene with a dead body when the accident occurred.
A relatively low-budget film, “Crash” struck a chord with a lot of people and became a moderate hit (huge in relation to what it cost to produce, making more than $50 million on an estimated $6.5 million budget). But while Haggis’ film serves up some truths aided by a number of solid performances in the ensemble cast, its jaundiced view distorts the city.
Its relatively small community of players helps create dramatic tension in the film, but it can’t be considered a microcosm of L.A.
It’s too contrived. The racial problems that “Crash” focuses on are very real, but L.A. is far too diverse in scope and dimension to be described that simply. But in a city of rubber-neckers, it’s also advisable not to look away from “Crash.”
3 Oscar films remastered
There are a ton of older films being brought out, including three Oscar winners that have been remastered – “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), “The Sting” (1973) and “The Deer Hunter” (1978).
Robert Mulligan’s “Mockingbird” ($26.98), about a trial of a black man (Brock Peters, who died recently) accused of raping a white woman in Alabama in the 1930s, is still powerful today. The black-and-white is a bit claustrophobic in staging, but the performances by Peters and Oscar winner Gregory Peck as defense attorney Atticus Finch are outstanding.
George Roy Hill’s “The Sting” ($26.98), starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, was enjoyable fluff but didn’t deserve an Oscar.
Michael Cimino’s Vietnam-era saga “The Deer Hunter” ($26.98), starring Robert De Niro and best supporting Oscar winner Christopher Walken, was tremendously affecting coming on the heels of the war. Today it seems strained in its execution, although the performances still hold up.
On the centennial of her birth (Sept. 18, 1905), the spotlight is back on the glamorous Greta Garbo, the actress who coveted solitude. The new “Signature” box set ($99.92) covers the highlights of her shortened career. (She went into a self-imposed exile from Hollywood in 1941.) The set includes “Anna Christie,” “Mata Hari,” “Grand Hotel” “Queen Christina,” “Anna Karenina,” “Camille”/”Ninotchka” and some of her silent films. The best of the lot is the 1939 “Ninotchka,” directed by Ernst Lubitsch, which touted that Garbo laughs. A wonderfully sly film that pokes fun at communism and capitalism, “Ninotchka” showed a new side of the Swedish star. The others – except the very good Oscar-winning “Grand Hotel,” which was an ensemble piece – relied on Garbo’s enigmatic allure, which often is enough.
And keep in mind Jack Clayton’s 1961 “The Innocents” ($14.98), a chilling, atmospheric adaptation of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” starring Deborah Kerr and Michael Redgrave. Co-scripted by Truman Capote, the elegant film still delivers the jolts.
NEW ON DVD
Fever Pitch *** The notorious Farrelly brothers are either getting softer or smarter, because this romantic comedy has far more thoughtful moments than gross-out highlights. Jimmy Fallon plays a bachelor married to the Boston Red Sox; he falls in love with Drew Barrymore, and she with him, but she doesn’t know that baseball will always be his mistress. Their predicament leads to surprisingly insightful conversations about what men should or should not give up to be domesticated. PG-13; 102 minutes (Michael Booth)
Rock School *** 1/2 This is the real-life story made funny fiction in Jack Black’s “School of Rock.” Paul Green runs a rock ‘n’ roll teaching center in Philadelphia, and his profane, f-bomb-laden rants provide a glimpse at “alternative” teaching methods. If your kids can take the language, they’ll enjoy watching a screaming teacher and deciding whether his methods are genius or insane. R; 93 minutes (Michael Booth)
Winter Solstice *** This quietly accomplished movie is full of moments that will bring tears to the eyes of empty-nesters and their teens. No emotion is cheap, and first-time writer and director Josh Sternfeld deserves big praise and bigger budgets. Anthony LaPaglia plays a decent father still struggling with the absence of his wife after five years. His restless sons are ready to strike out on their own, and sometimes the house seems unbearably old and empty. R; 93 minutes (Michael Booth)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy *** Douglas Adams’ beloved sci-fi goofiness has always seemed like the kind of story the guys from your high school audiovisual club would have dreamed up between threading film projectors. Its essence is a sweet chaos that questions all authority and in the end affirms basic Western existence as better than most alternatives. This adaptation captures the spirit, and fans of the light novels should be happy. PG; 100 minutes (Michael Booth)
