Crash

Friday, Dec. 4 at 1:15 AM EDT

1996 | 98 min. | Director: David Cronenberg | TV-MA-LSV
After surviving a brutal car wreck, commercial director James Ballard finds himself slowly drawn to a mysterious subculture of people who have transformed automobile accidents into erotic events. Like the J.G. Ballard novel that inspired it, David Cronenberg's study of the sexual dimension of man's relationship to technology was a magnet for controversy, drawing a NC-17 rating and criticism from several sources, including studio owner Ted Turner, who attempted to prevent the film's American release. But though some have leveled charges of pornography, James' descent into this fetishistic underworld is approached with cold, scientific detachment. Characters like Vaughn, the charismatic group leader who stages recreations of celebrity car crashes, seem more like driven researchers than sexual renegades, which is undoubtedly part of the film's point. This impression is reinforced by the pristine cinematography by Peter Suschitzsky, which proves particularly haunting during a crucial accident scene, and Howard Shore's superb score. Far from exploitative, Crash in fact proves less transgressive than the original novel, but is still undoubtedly not for all tastes.

namcisum

A weird film even by David Cronenberg's standards. Bordering on pornographic, it is saved from that label by the performances of the always strange James Spader and the always wonderful Holly Hunter. But the NC-17 rating is well deserved. Definitely not for everyone, but IFC addicts like me will find it worth their time. It is sort of like a college course in Abnormal Psychology. namcisum