Crash (2004)

Crash is a 2004 American drama film produced, directed, and co-written by Paul Haggis. The film features an ensemble cast, starring Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Michael Peña, and Ryan Phillippe. Crash was inspired by a real-life incident, in which his Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard.

Plot
The film interweaves several connected stories about race, class, family and gender in Los Angeles in the aftermath of 9/11. Characters include a district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his casually prejudiced wife (Sandra Bullock), dating police detectives Graham (Don Cheadle) and Ria (Jennifer Esposito), a victimized Middle Eastern store owner and a wealthy African-American couple (Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton) humiliated by a racist traffic cop (Matt Dillon).

Cast

 * Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot
 * Don Cheadle as Det. Graham Waters
 * Matt Dillon as Sgt. John Ryan
 * Jennifer Esposito as Ria
 * Brendan Fraser as D.A. Rick Cabot
 * Terrence Howard as Cameron Thayer
 * Ludacris as Anthony
 * Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer
 * Michael Peña as Daniel Ruiz
 * Ryan Phillippe as Officer Tom Hansen
 * Larenz Tate as Peter Waters
 * Shaun Toub as Farhad
 * Bahar Soomekh as Dorri
 * Ashlyn Sanchez as Lara Ruiz
 * Karina Arroyave as Elizabeth Ruiz
 * Loretta Devine as Shaniqua Johnson
 * Beverly Todd as Mrs. Waters
 * William Fichtner as Flanagan
 * Keith David as Lt. Dixon
 * Daniel Dae Kim as Park
 * Nona Gaye as Karen
 * Bruce Kirby as 'Pop' Ryan
 * Tony Danza as Fred
 * Kathleen York as Officer Johnson
 * Sylva Kelegian as Nurse Hodges
 * Ashlyn Sanchez as Lara Ruiz
 * Karina Arroyave as Elizabeth Ruiz
 * Loretta Devine as Shaniqua Johnson
 * Beverly Todd as Mrs. Waters
 * William Fichtner as Flanagan
 * Keith David as Lt. Dixon
 * Daniel Dae Kim as Park
 * Nona Gaye as Karen
 * Bruce Kirby as 'Pop' Ryan
 * Tony Danza as Fred
 * Kathleen York as Officer Johnson
 * Sylva Kelegian as Nurse Hodges
 * Marina Sirtis as Shereen

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 236 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A raw and unsettling morality piece on modern angst and urban disconnect, Crash examines the dangers of bigotry and xenophobia in the lives of interconnected Angelenos." On Metacritic the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars and described it as "a movie of intense fascination", listing it as the best film of 2005. The film also ranks at #460 in Empire's 2008 poll of the "500 Greatest Films of All Time".

Some later reviews of Crash have been less favorable. Cultural critic Ta-Nehisi Coates criticized the film as shallow and "unthinking," naming Crash "the worst film of the decade." The film has been critiqued for depicting the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God." The film has also been criticized for using multicultural and sentimentalist imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect different racial groups in Los Angeles.

In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected Crash as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.