Crash

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🎙️ EPISODE 510: 07.14.22 *review begins ~16:32 This felt like the most dreamlike and loosest Cronenberg yet (with Naked Lunch a close second). Eschewing exposition for VIBES and plot points for FEELING. This is not a mode he has explored much, but it suits his predilections nicely. And despite being one the horniest non-porno movies I've ever seen, it seems to be less about the actual sex and more about potential future inclinations of a society pushing towards transhumanism. There's a perverse nihilism built into the sentiment, in general, and there's nothing here in this adaption of a J.G. Ballard novel which seeks to dissuade that. The sex and car crash movie doesn't seem to be pro- or anti- either sex OR cars, necessarily. Instead, it's about the human allure of pushing forward, the unique and unstoppable biological desire to do so. And the unavoidable carnage and destruction often left in its wake.

As is custom at this point, we get the credits up front as part of their own graphic design and not overlaid on any footage. This to showcase all the important people in front of and behind the camera, notably composer Howard Shore, whose unique and unrelentingly different scores have been hallmark of this middle era. Here he's doing a quasi Jandek Lite thing with off-kilter guitar and it totally works...


The film begins and ends with a sex scene and there are sex scenes or other moments of overt holiness at least every five minutes. James Spader plays James Ballard (yes, Ballard named this character after himself), a film producer who is already engaged in an open-marriage with Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) before he gets sucked into the world of symphorophilia (aroused by car crashes). But a horrible auto wreck, which he causes, changes that...


The parallels between cars and sex are not new. They're both about gratification on some level. It's the crash part that makes it uncomfortable for most viewers.

Ballard is badly injured and laid up in the hospital. The companion of the man who flew threw that window, Dr. Helen Remington played by Holly Hunter, is a patient in the same unit. He meets her acquaintance, a man named Vaughan, who is really the driving force (no pun intended) of the picture. Vaughan is portrayed by Elias Koteas. Perhaps more known for his various supporting and TV roles, he is tremendous here, somehow dripping with a death-wish yet never coming across as overtly mad or mentally ill.

Ballard's descent into this world is fast and feels natural. The film is almost completely void of explanation; its characters just do and are and be. Their motivations are a secret which, at first, you feel inclined to want to unpack. But in time you realize that that isn't the point. Other characters like Helen and Vaughan are already entrenched before the story even begins.

At its core, Crash is a film about relationships, about wanting to understand things and people. Catherine, who we've already witness fornicating against a single engine plane in a hangar, already has one foot in this world in a way, and is readily looking for a push further. Their marriage and what it means is a core element here. There are tiny moments that seem to speak volumes, like when she jerks him off in his hospital bed as she recounts the details of the crash, and he recoils...



This isn't a "body horror" movie in the way that Cronenberg's classic films of that sub-genre are, but it also might be the most "body horror" work of his career. The idea of injuries — sustaining them and healing from them — is ever-present: from Ballard's limp to Vaughan's multitude of scars; a character named Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette) dons restrictive steel braces for her semi-functional legs which are deeply scarred with unsettling, somewhat gaping wounds that never healed quite right; Vaughan gets inked my a medical tattoo artist with car emblems all over his body and rips off the bandages well before they're ready to come off. And so on...

Rosanna Arquette hiding a joint in her leg brace

And it always come back to the automobile. Riding with Ballard, who purchases the same make, model and color car that he crashed, Helen remarks, "how do people look at a car, let alone drive one" after what they've been through. It's a delicate scene as these two, forever linked after the accident, feel each other out. There doesn't seem to be a shred of animosity or regret, but rather intrigue and a kind of fear they both find themselves attracted to. It's impeccably shot by Cronenberg...


Later that same day, they go see Vaughan do a rogue theater routine where he reenacts the fatal James Dean car crash with a stunt driver...


It's a fascinating setup: the culmination, or apex of this fetish as it blends with the world of celebrity; it's always been about flirting with death and the sexiest flirtations are the ones that go (or went) all the way with the sexiest people. And Cronenberg, ever the lover of cars, car chases, car crashes and, shit, even "funny" cars, breathes life into this fucked and haunted portrayal...


It's at this point in the film, when Vaughan lays out what's really going on here (or as close to an 'answer' as we're gonna get)...


In a way, this simple sentiment ("the reshaping of the human body by modern technology") seems to be the theme of not just this movie, but much of Cronenberg's work, especially his most recent film (2022's Crimes of the Future), which — admittedly — I haven't seen yet. He unpacks these ideas further a little later. In response to Ballard saying, "It's all very satisfying, but I'm not sure I understand why," he answers...


That is by far the closes we'll get to any kind of literal interpretation (from the movie, at least). From this point on, the movie escapes down a more and more surreal path. Like when they wonder into the site of recent crash, moving around like ghosts between the paramedics and firefighters. The scene is drenched in fog and smoke, and Vaughan takes photographs before discovering that his stunt driver friend has done the next reenactment without him...


Forget the fact that this death brings him both joy and regret (at not having been apart of it), the entire vibe here has now shifted a degree further. It feels as if they're existing in a dream, somewhere between life and death or rather, wholly not a part of either. This film is a return to a slightly shorter run-time for Cronenberg, yet it takes its time, relegating the audience into a hazy warp.

It does make one pitstop into the land of the living, the normal. When Gabrielle and Ballard go to a car dealership...


The square car salesman is just another pawn, no different than a piece of twisted metal or a graphic photograph. He and his "normal body" will never understand, and that anguish is used as fuel. This brief respite in the ordinary world is key in understanding how far out this group has gotten. So far out, in fact, that the only conclusion is literal death...


This spurs Catherine and Ballard, ever looking for that true reconnection, to engage in their own game of vehicular cat and mouse and the stunt-driving / camerawork is tremendous...


He drives Catherine off the road. She crashes. The Howard Shore score is less chaotic and more purposeful now. She's thrown from car but she's alive. She's badly hurt, but says, "I think I'm all right" twice. Ballard starts to touch her sexually and says, "maybe the next one, darling ." There's a very nihilist, fatalist tone here. The final shot pulls back from their screwing halfway underneath this totaled sports car. What does it all really mean? The film is hypnotic and clearly doesn't care if you walk away with any answers. In fact, it's stubbornly opposed to walking in general (sorry). I think it has a lot of high-minded ideas, though. You can go as big or as small as you'd like in interpreting them. Is it American culture in a death race to the bitter end, or is it about uncontrollable ego? Or are those things permanently and sickeningly intertwined?

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 14th 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚐 – 𝚖𝚢 𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑/𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝙲𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚐'𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢. 𝙲𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎...

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 510A - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 511 ⫸

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Crash is a 1996 psychological drama film written, produced and directed by David Cronenberg, based on J. G. Ballard's 1973 novel of the same name. Starring James Spader, Deborah Kara Unger, Elias Koteas, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette, it follows a film producer who, after surviving a car crash, becomes involved with a group of symphorophiliacs who are aroused by car crashes, and tries to rekindle his sexual relationship with his wife. It was released on October 4, 1996.