Crash. David Cronenberg. 1996.

Based on the Ballard book that inspired the song by The Normal that was covered by Grace Jones:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn4ohXUdo_8]

This is much better than that other Crash movie. It’s mesmerising. Of course, it’s mostly sex. I mean, it’s all sex. This is probably the horniest movie of the 90s.

I may be slightly drunkenly over-enthusiastic about this movie, but I’m totes enthusiastic about half of the scenes here and the rest I don’t know about.

Holly Hunter’s voice here is so odd. It reminds me of something…

Crash. Paul Haggis. 2004.

According to Lindsay, this is supposed to be on of the worst movies ever. That’s what I assumed, anyway, since it won all the Oscars.

I tried to buy Cronenberg’s Crash, of course, but I got this instead.

*sigh*

It’s not… that bad? I mean, it’s got an unusual ensemble thing going on. I like the structure. Everything kinda slides from one thing to the next as if by association.

The problem is what’s in the scenes: People shouting at each other. Every single scene is about people shouting lines at each other. And the things they shout are things real people would ever utter. And the plot is a kinda-metaphorical “everything connects” kinda thing, which would probably work better in a smaller town than LA? I mean, it doesn’t go for believeability, so that’s fine. But some of the plot points (like the nice car thief being the one getting killed) is eye-rollingly signalled so far in advance that when it finally happens it’s *sigh*.

Moral of the story: Older Iranian men are really, really, really annoying.

The Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody Allen. 1985.

Oh, I had forgotten that Mia Farrow was in this one. I thought this was one of the later Woodies.

She’s perfect here… kinda playing the Woody role, except for getting involved with Jeff Daniels. Who is, I think, not perfect for his role at all. He’s supposed to have 30s movie charm, but instead he’s just… Midwestern and corn fed.

It’s a charming movie. It’s a movie that shows a huge affection for silly 30s movies, which is kinda irresistible.

But it’s a bit… chatty. I know that saying that about a Woody Allen movie is about as insightful as claiming that water is wet (it is!). But this one really, really leans into it, and not all the chatter is as funny as it should be.