Crash (1996)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring James Spader, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, Holly Hunter, Rosanna Arquette, Peter MacNeill, Judah Katz. [NC-17]

After crashing into Hunter’s car (and killing her husband), Spader discovers a fetishistic arousal for car crashes, a predilection shared by several others, including his distant but licentious wife (Unger) and a man (Koteas) obsessed with recreating vehicular accidents that claimed the lives of celebrities such as James Dean and Jayne Mansfield. Provocative adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s controversial novel has a hypnotically cold allure to it like the best of Stanley Kubrick, defined by a sinister compulsion that nearly cripples its compact cast of characters, throbbing with raw, unconventional eroticism not meant to titillate, but fascinate and even repulse. The story is stitched together in abstract terms (notice how Hunter disappears for a large chunk of the movie), and even beyond the questionable authenticity of its paraphilic subject, loses touch with reality a bit too often—were there no repercussions for Spader’s involuntary manslaughter? The performances all strike the appropriate note of chilly remoteness; there is no romantic feeling in the various couplings, just the trance of their impulse, as partners are swapped regularly regardless of commitment, correspondence or gender. Challenging, to say the least, and certainly not for all (or even most) tastes, but those willing to align themselves with Cronenberg’s uncompromising vision will find much to respond to, much to admire, and very little to emphatically enjoy.

84/100