Recommendation: 4/5 Stars  

The Cinephile’s Journey is an attempt to watch and review every film that has won The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar for Best Picture.  

Plot: “Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.” 

Review: Looking at a few movie review websites, no Best Picture winner divides like Crash. Reading thoughtful reviews from my fellow critics, I see countless conversations around the trivialization of racial and class divides. I also see talk concerned with an overly simplistic plot and moments of levity that land in awkward moments in the film. Before offering my thoughts on this movie, as part of an attempt to watch and review all Best Picture winners, I want to say these opinions have given me pause and much to consider. Watching this movie as a white man and then reading the opinions from different minority groups opened my eyes to a new world. As you read on, please know I am still wrestling with those opinions and my discomfort.  

For three years, I called Los Angeles home. Living there changed the way I absorbed this film and my experience with it. The differences between my initial viewing and the latest are many. Most present for me is that I now possess a better understanding of the complex threads holding together one of America’s great metropolises. Having lived there drastically shifted the way I viewed this film, because Los Angeles is a character in this movie, and is as present as any actor on screen.   

Los Angeles is a melting pot of ideas, cultures, races, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, identities, and beliefs. It is a complex place to live. It is also a massive city with an enormous population stretching across a land mass bigger than some states.  

The central theme that this film attempts to wrestle with is that of race. In my estimation, it tries to personify the complexities of sharing a space with such a diverse population. No one presented on the screen is without sin, nor are they without qualities we would all desire in our neighbors. Each character in this movie is part sinner and part saint. More than that, each walks the Earth carrying past trauma with them. This trauma stems from violent events, sexual assault, racism, xenophobia, classism, and much more. This trauma, coupled with the complexities of character, delivers people with shifting positions of power and influence. In my estimation, this is where this film shines.  

This film is also an essay focused on what it means to live in a major city such as Los Angeles. Living in such a place can often mean life is defined by time spent in a car within reach of people who all possess their own unique stories and challenges. On freeways, city sidewalks, or open spaces, these people often appear like molecules constantly bumping into each other. I think this film wants us to consider those interactions and question the waves of distrust and hurt we often bring to those moments. Sharing space with strangers is no simple task, but when done well, the true nature of a city reveals itself.   

Finally, and more broadly, I think this is more than a film. I believe it is an essay about American society. Released in the wake of the events surrounding 9/11, long gone are those warm, fuzzy, patriotic emotions that followed the immediate aftermath. The society presented on screen is more angry, distrustful, and quick to violence than ever before. Moments of compassion and understanding are hard to find in this movie. I am not, and I do not think America is as cynical and as pessimistic as the story we witness here. But I think it wants us to consider those initial moments of togetherness that followed that moment of infamy.  

Without a doubt in my mind, this is not a perfect movie. It also is not nearly as perfect as I deemed it to be when I first watched it. Taking into consideration the views of my fellow critics, I have many issues with it, but for what it asks me to consider and ponder, I cannot help but admire the effort.  

Be good to each other,  

Nathan