Powerful

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Crash is the product of its time and is no more interesting. This Freud thing stinks, especially when presented this explicitly. I have to note, though, that the idea of being addicted to crashes and scars is almost dreamlike, feels like a holdover from my previous life. Somehow it reminded me of "Sex, lies and videotape". Anyway, I wouldn't say that my first foray into Kronenberg has been an amazing experience, but I would watch his later movies.

Crash is a film I do not have many good things to say about and yet still cannot downrate it because I do like the cast and always enjoy the signature Cronenberg material sensuality that conveys highly distinct tactile sensations via light and sound. That said, Crash is a boring movie and not so much edgy as something to be endured. Crash does not feel cool or adventurous and yet most of the film is action; it is like a pornographic movie -- not much plot but just goes through different scenarios, yet does not feel sexy and so does not create tension. The vibe is corrupt, uncool, and dystopic like a glam rock band playing in the mid 90s to a bored audience in a half-filled stadium that needs to be torn down. They smash their gear and we can only think that it was not worth it, what a waste. I would like to think this was all intentional, because I like other Cronenberg films, but cannot really recommend it except to the curious ones that want to see something different.

Crash explores a fetish for car accidents. The movie's been praised for its depiction of sex. The free love is refreshing at first. As it dives deeper, the audience feels alienated rather than enlightened.The movie seems to revel in its weirdness. Strange dialog and score. The characters like being outcasts. The whole tone is dark. The filmmakers wanted the movie to feel creepy. In contrast, a lighter tone would have felt more sexually liberating. Instead it reminds you that while you can practice sex how you like, you'll still be judged for it.Side note: The sex scenes actually seem "grown up". It's too bad a film like this faced a lot of controversy. A typical porn film is infinitely more graphic.

David Cronenberg's 'Crash' shares something in common with Louis Malle's 'Damage' (read that sentence again and see if you don't smile). Both are films about people fixated on a dangerous obsession. 'Damage', the better of the two was about a man's unhealthy sexual obsession with his son's fiancée. 'Crash' is about a group of people who have an unhealthy sexual obsession with car accidents. Which would you prefer to watch? Me too.The movie begins with a couple (James Spader and Debra Kara Unger) fixated on the thrill of sex in a public place. He gets in a car accident and the husband of the woman (Holly Hunter) in the other car is killed. The two meet at an impound lot and find that they both got off on the accident.Cut to another couple played by Elias Koteas and Roseanna Arquette. Her scarred legs are in braces and he makes a public display out of reenacting the famous celebrity car accidents that killed James Dean and Jane Mansfield. Somehow Koteas, Spader and Hunter all come together, drawn apparently not by sex but by their similar fetish.I am a fan of David Cronenberg because even his lesser films are never boring. 'Crash' is one of his lesser films. It doesn't work because I never for one moment found myself interested in what they were doing. Maybe that was the point but I couldn't get beyond their bizarre attraction to something so horrible. The movie is too slow and even for Cronenberg, hard to take I think the reason that I like 'Damage' more was because I had a starting point with the obsession that Jeremy Irons had with this son's fiancée. I have no idea why the characters in 'Crash' love car accidents and judging by their behavior, I don't think that I want to know.