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Title: We're All Racists???? Who Knew???!!!
Review: To judge by this movie, everybody but Hollywood. Crash reminded me of nothing so much as American Beauty, a beautiful to look at, urgently made, and ultimately empty piece of work. Yes, the acting is fine; yes, the intercutting between characters works; yes, some of the dialogue is entertaining (e.g. when the hijack duo banter about hockey and the Staples Center) but it's all using a sledgehammer and stock characters and emotions to make the point -- again and again and again -- that racism is alive and well in the 21st century. This is news?Jon Stewart jibed that Hollywood is out of touch. Despite George Clooney's riposte, Crash and its Oscar validates Stewart's point -- the Academy awards itself for bravely discovering what is old news to every other sentient being, implying in the moralizing that Hollywood itself is different. The ugly squabble about who gets producer credit for Crash nicely exposes that conceit.
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