We watched Crash tonight (the 2005 Crash--not to be confused with Croenenberg's film of the Ballard novel). Wow! I see why it won the Oscar, though I have friends who disagree. It felt like a very good novel. Actually, what it reminded me of was the short lived TV show Boomtown, also about interlocking lives in LA. (Yes, I know I never link things and that's frustrating to readers, but I barely write here at all--to look for and add the links is more than I can manage now). I screamed, I cried, I shouted F*&K! I felt for these people; I knew these people. Saying that, it also felt like a fairytale in some ways. I was prepared for it to be unredeemably bleak, but it was hopeful--that people can make the right decisions in the wrong moment even when bad decisions have been made before. Film wise it was a little choppy--felt like a first film, too much slow mo', too many lingering shots, or blurred shots, and just a hair's breadth (is it breath or breadth? English lit says breadth, but American usage says breath) too much coincidence, but like I said I was completely sucked in.
I said at the beginning that it was Not to be confused with the Ballard, but in some ways, the idea that violence both separates us and brings us together in these modern times is prevelant in both.
We watched Syriana about a week ago. Also wow. Was amazed that it wasn't directed by Soderbergh, definitely Soderbergh school--much out of focus, overlit (how has that become a style?). Scary, and to me, believable. Human action is about the immediate good of one's immediate cronies--everyone else be damned, looking after their own.
I said at the beginning that it was Not to be confused with the Ballard, but in some ways, the idea that violence both separates us and brings us together in these modern times is prevelant in both.
We watched Syriana about a week ago. Also wow. Was amazed that it wasn't directed by Soderbergh, definitely Soderbergh school--much out of focus, overlit (how has that become a style?). Scary, and to me, believable. Human action is about the immediate good of one's immediate cronies--everyone else be damned, looking after their own.
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