Popcorn Reviews With Cybèle: Crash 

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

Popcorn Rating (4 possible): 3 kernels for a fearless take on a bizarre subject.

This film is about sex and car crashes. Pornography for the car enthusiast. If you can get past that fact, or if you are intrigued (secretly of course), you will enjoy this film.

If you can’t get past that, or there are kids in the house - don’t rent it.

James Ballard (James Spader) is a jaded lover who trades sex escapade stories with his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger). They have sex afterwards. There’s a lot of sex in this film, so get comfy. Soon after James finds himself in his own car crash, and a deer in the headlights of a night-time world of re-created historic crashes (James Dean, Kennedy etc.) and secret forays into highway pileups. James doesn’t fight the seduction. A follower by nature, he eyes the goings-on from the fringes, but there is never any doubt that he is already knee deep.

You may wonder if this car-crash-sex thing has any basis in reality. I’ve read that it doesn’t, but that doesn’t prove a thing. For every bizarre idea, there are people who do it, or there will be. It isn’t about car crashes per se, It’s really about how and where we focus our sexuality. Good thing too, because there isn’t much plot to go on. Philosophy and lust will have to do.

James Spader is in his element in this off-beat dark film, the latest in the series of off-beat dark films that mark his career. Whether by choice or circumstance, he does bring a extraordinary sensuality to all his roles.

Although the ending is somewhat inevitable, the director took the courageous route in finding new ways for people to relate over and under and in automobiles. For a car and sex obsessed culture like our own, it’s the perfect coupling.

Suggested Gustatory Accompaniment: Drive-thru food: juicy hamburgers and beer battered onion rings

Copyright 2000