Movie Review: Crash

Crash (2005) 

Directed by Paul Haggis

Written by Paul Haggis

Starring Ludacris, Lorenz Tate, Brendan Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Shaun Toub, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard 

Release Date May 6th, 2005

Published May 5th, 2005

Paul Haggis showed the depth of his talents as a writer with his Oscar nominated script for Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. The natural progression of any filmmaking career has lead Mr. Haggis out from behind the computer keys to behind the camera directing his first feature. Working from his own script, Mr. Haggis has crafted Crash, an intricately plotted and engrossing drama about the futility of violence, the helplessness of anger and the politics of race.

As two well dressed young African American men, Anthony (Rapper, Ludacris) and Peter (Lorenz Tate), walk down an affluently appointed street in Los Angeles discussing race, they are the only black faces to be seen. Even as they dress and act like they belong here, Anthony can't help but note the most minor of slights from the lack of good service in the restaurant they just left to a rich white woman (Sandra Bullock) who crosses the street with her husband (Brendan Fraser) when she see's them.

Anthony asks Peter what makes them so different from all these white people aside from race? They provide an answer to his question by summarily bringing out guns and stealing the couple's SUV. This act touches off a series of events that envelopes a pair of cops played by Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe, a detective and his partner played by Don Cheadle and Jennifer Espisito, a locksmith and his family (Michael Pena) an Arab family headed up by Farhad (Shaun Toub) and a black married couple played by Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton.

When Sgt. Ryan (Dillon) and his rookie partner Hanson (Phillippe) get a call that a car jacking has taken place nearby, Ryan pulls over the next similar looking car he sees. Despite the fact that the SUV is clearly not the one they are looking for (Hanson points out that the license plate is different) Ryan stops it anyway after seeing the driver, Cameron (Howard), black. The stop is marked by Ryan harassing Cameron's wife Christine (Newton) over the weak protest of Hanson. The incident is devastating to Cameron and Christine's marriage.

Peter happens to be the brother of police detective Graham Waters (Cheadle) who, as a result of the carjacking, is brought to the attention of the L.A District Attorney Rick Cabot, the victim of the crime along with his wife, Jean (Again, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock). Cabot wants a black detective on the case to avoid accusations of racism and he wants Detective Waters specifically.

Meanwhile Jean at home alone is absolutely freaked out by the incident and has had the locks changed. Unfortunately when her husband sent for a locksmith (Michael Pena) he did not know he was a tattooed inner city Latino, something his wife notes immediately in accusing the man of wanting to change the locks in order to return later and rob her. For his part the locksmith is good hearted family man who has struggled to get out from under this sort of cultural bias all his life.

When the locksmith accepts one more late night job at the grocery store before heading home we get a very tense scene between he and the shop owner Farhad (Shaun Taub) an Iranian immigrant who speaks very little English. What was a simple misunderstanding due to the language barrier very nearly turns violent and leads into yet another scene at the locksmith's home that may be the strongest moment in the film when you yourself see it.

The links between all of the various characters in Crash are tenuous in terms of actual interaction. However in terms of themes, race and racism, they could not be more strongly connected. So bold are the themes and the characters that you can forgive the often forced attempts to connect them physically in the same scene or plot strand.  

Crash is akin to Paul Thomas Anderson's extraordinary 1999 ensemble drama Magnolia. Both films share a reliance on chance and fate and sprawling casts of well known and respected actors. Crash Director Paul Haggis eschews Anderson's esoteric flights of fancy-- there are no frogs in Crash-- but both films pack an emotional punch that will leave the theater with you. Crash is hampered slightly by not having Magnolia's extravagant run time of three plus hours, for at a mere 93 minutes the film has far less time to establish its characters.

Haggis makes up for this by creating dramatic scenarios that are harrowingly tense and emotional. The scenes involving Michael Pena's locksmith and Shaun Toub's Iranian shop keeper are an extraordinary example of Mr. Haggis's ability to craft confrontations that provoke fate without entirely crossing that thin line between dramatic realism and fantasy.

Crash is ostensibly about racism but it goes much deeper than that into an examination of the psyche of a broad expanse of people displaced emotionally by tragedy, by violence, by hatred and more importantly by chance. Chance is the strangest of all, the way people are sometimes thrown together in situations they never could have imagined. Chance breeds fear but it can also breed love. You can meet your end by chance or meet your destiny. Crash is all about chance encounters, people crashing into one another and the way their lives unfold afterwards.

A brilliant announcement of a new talent arriving, Crash brings Paul Haggis from behind the writer's desk and into the director's chair in the way that Paul Schrader broke from his roots of writing for Martin Scorsese to direct his first great film American Gigolo. Like Schrader, Haggis will continue writing for others (he and Eastwood are collaborating once more on the upcoming Flags of Our Fathers), but with Crash, Mr. Haggis shows where his future really lies.

Movie Review Iron Man

Iron Man (2008) 

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub

Release Date May 2nd, 2008 

Published May 1st, 2008 

Tony Stark has lived a life of glorious privilege since birth. His father was part of the group that invented the A Bomb. That allowed Tony's dad to build a weapons manufacturing empire. By the time Tony Stark became a grown-up, he was a billionaire. He was also an orphan as his parents were killed in an accident some years before this story begins. 

With power, money and women all at his feet things could not be any more perfect for Tony Stark. He was left only for a fall. That fall comes when Tony is captured by Afghan terrorists after demonstrating his latest weapon for the military. The terrorists want Tony to build them his new weapon from the scraps of his weapons that they have somehow purchased.

Tony has other plans. With the help of a fellow captive (Shaun Toub, Crash) Tony builds a new kind of weapon, a giant iron suit that he will use to escape. This prototype suit allows Tony to fight his way out of the clutches of the bad guys and into a well timed rescue by the military, lead by Tony's pal General Rhodes (Terrence Howard).

Returning home, Tony decides to change his ways. While perfecting his iron suit weapon he makes the rash decision to take his company out of the weapons business, against the advice of his father's business partner Obediah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Vowing to protect the people he put in harms way with his weapons of mass destruction, Stark creates Iron Man and goes to war with terrorists and their benefactors.

Directed by Jon Favreau, Iron Man is classic blockbuster, summer movie fare. Larger than life characters, good versus evil, big time action and a sense of humor. Iron Man has it all and in the person of Robert Downey Jr. it has a soul and depth that similar movies (I'm looking at you Fantastic Four) don't have.

Downey is not your prototypical action star and given his history of drug and alcohol abuse, he's the last actor you would imagine as the star of a summer blockbuster. That is however what makes his casting so inspired. Hiring a real actor as opposed to some hunky stand-in (Tom Welling anyone?), gives Iron Man the kind of depth that it would take other actors a lot more work to establish.

Surrounded by an exceptional supporting cast of Oscar nominees, Terrence Howard, Oscar winners, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and crafty veterans, Jeff 'The Dude' Bridges, Shaun Taub, Downey sparkles and Iron Man transcends the typical summer movie. Iron Man is not without flaws, it takes a while to get to the red and gold suit, the editing of the big fight scene is a little muddled, but overall this is a terrific summer entertainment.

Movie Review The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender (2010) 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan 

Written by M. Night Shyamalan 

Starring Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub 

Release Date July 1st, 2010 

Published June 30th, 2010 

“The Last Airbender” tells the story of a young boy named Aang (Noah Ringer) who is the reincarnation of the Avatar, the master of all the elements. The elements are Earth, Fire, Water and Air, and The Avatar is the person who brings balance to the world dominated by tribes of those who can master, or rather "Bend," only one of the elements. Unfortunately for all involved, Aang is a petulant deity reincarnated and he runs off for more than a hundred years.

Losing himself in a block of ice, Aang is rescued as our story begins by a Waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her warrior brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone). Together the trio journey's across the world leading a rebellion against the evil Firebenders who, in the Avatar's absence, began a hostile takeover of the world, taking harsh control over the Water and Earth Tribes and wiping out the Airbenders, Aang's original tribe before he found that he controlled all elements. 

The Firebenders are led by Fire Lord Ozai and his evil minion, Commander Zhao (Aasif Mondvi). Also on the side of the Firebenders are Ozai's son, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) and his faithful uncle General Iroh (Shaun Taub) who have been cast out of the Firebender Kingdom after Zuko defied his father's leadership and lost a head to head fight with his even more evil sister, Princess Yue. If, however, Zuko can capture the Avatar he can reclaim his rightful place at his father's side.

If this sounds at all intriguing then you have likely enjoyed the cartoon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” which had a healthy run on Nickelodeon and in worldwide television syndication. If you haven't seen the series you are more than likely scratching your head over all of the portentous goofiness that this plot entails. Things grow only goofier under the direction of M. Night Shyamalan whose fall from golden boy status in just the last 6 years is one of the more remarkable failures in film history. Shyamalan was once considered alongside Steven Speilberg and George Lucas for his seemingly unfailing talent for wowing audiences.

Then Mr. Shyamalan made “The Village” and the drying of the fount of Shyamalan's genius for twisting, knotting plots began. “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” followed and seemed to come from a different director altogether as not only was Shyamalan's talent for twisty narrative gone, so was his skill with a camera and even the basic smarts for telling a coherent story. The Happening was a true nadir, an utterly bonkers environmental fable about trees causing people to kill themselves. 

”The Last Airbender” is, at the very least, somewhat more coherent and intelligible than “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening.” Then again, that's not saying much. What The Last Airbender shares with those blisteringly awful films is a taste for inexplicably absurd visual flourish and wildly bizarre inversions of tone and logic. Sure, you can divine a plot in “The Last Airbender” but it is quite a committed fight.

Now, if you are a fan of the cartoon you begin with an advantage that lifts the burden the rest of the audience must carry throughout. In fact, if you are a fan you may actually find a way to enjoy the goofball nuttiness of Shyamalan's insane kiddie landscapes. It helps to have a taste and tolerance for this level of cockamamy mumbo jumbo. The Last Airbender is far up its own you know what in terms of being an obtuse bit of fan service, impenetrable to those not already part of the fandon. 

Without the prior introduction and slavish devotion to this characters and this property, one can only observe “The Last Airbender” with jaws agape and mind slightly melted. “The Last Airbender” is so violently ludicrous in storytelling, dialogue, effects and just about every other aspect of filmmaking that one almost appreciates the opportunity to experience it as it is unlikely you will see something this brazenly insular ever again on a movie screen.

M. Night Shyamalan is the single most daring bad director in the business. When M Night  Shyamalan fails he does so with epic intentions. No filmmaker has the courage to fail as spectacularly as Mr. Shyamalan has in his most recent films. “The Village” was a minor failure, a seeming blip after his wildly successful run of “Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs.” ”Lady in the Water” however was such a bold and ballsy disaster that one cannot help but appreciate the nutzo spirit that went into creating it. 

“The Happening” ranks up there next to “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and Tommy Wiseau's “The Room,” in my estimation, for the sheer outlandish unintended awfulness. Few films have committed such professional effort to such a misguided endeavor as “The Happening.” Now comes “The Last Airbender” a far more benign failure; one with the possibility of entertaining more than a few people. Those people however, are a fan cult devoted to the material in ways only Twi-Hards and Star Wars fans can truly appreciate. “The Last Airbender” fan cult is vast and devoted and without seeing an inch of film many of them have been defending the film from people such as myself who find the movie “The Last Airbender” an impenetrable and ungodly mess of a feature film.