Rating of
2.5/4
"Crash" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/16/12
David Cronenberg's adaptation of J. G. Ballard's novel revolves around a group of fetishists whose near death experiences in road accidents cause them to garner erotic pleasure from the sights and sounds of auto wrecks. As immaculately directed as it is, Crash will most certainly not to be to everyone's tastes. It's a study of the alienation from humanity of a group of individuals whose sexual encounters are little more than a series of impersonally brief and violent collisions, loaded with imagery of contorted figures and bondage fetishism. It's a strangely cold and distant film for something so full of sexual metaphors and eroticism, but that's kind of the point. James Spader made a career out of playing these kinds of sexually and socially deviant types, and Elias Koteas is one of the creepiest figures I've ever seen in a film, his stiff, shambling gait, sallow complexion and patchwork of scars make him look like a modern day Frankenstein's monster. Crash is really a sexual horror that relies on atmosphere and mood rather than drama and as such is an interesting experiment in representing a sexual psychology, but that doesn't necessarily make for popular entertainment. Try before you buy.
