Before 'Age of Ultron': Crash (1996)

At long last, a Film about Sex, Car Crashes and James Spader.  Yes, while most of you have certainly rediscovered Mr. Spader in the wake of the one-two punch that has been The Blacklist and Avengers: Age of Ultron, he made alot of weird-ass Films.  I was SOOOO tempted to do Secretary, but this one is more obscure.  Today's Film is Crash, the 1996 Film about Auto-Erotica and not the one about Racial Tension.  This Film's Director hasn't been blacklisted by Scientology- yet!  In this Film, a pair of people discover that they share a unique fetish: car crashes.  Natural reaction, right?  Can this relationship work out or are they bound for disaster?  To find out, let's try to skip past the sex in this NC-17 (remember when that was a thing?!?) release by David Cronenberg...

Told in a roundabout way, we learn about this blond lady and her husband (Spader).  He's a Screenwriter and kind of weird.  She's in an open marriage with a weirdo.

After hitting another car (by driving like a moron), he ends up in the Hospital & meets this brunette and a strange man (Elias Koteas).

Koteas has some weird hobbies.  For example, he stages a recreation of the Crash that killed James Deen for an audience, because...um...Cronenberg.

Holy crap- this is based on a Book too?  The 1970s- what a Decade.

Spader learns that the woman (Holly Hunter) has a history of being in Car Crashes...which doesn't bother him.

Spader, his wife (Deborah Unger), Koteas and Hunter get involved in some freaky stuff like sex in a Car Wash...

...and the pair of Koteas and Spader hooking up.  Who said that people with a Car Crash Fetish can't be progressive?

Koteas finally meets his end in a Car Crash- shocking, I know.

Spader and Unger continue to the Auto Erotica, however, and survive the next Crash.  They have passion in their sex for once, however, so they plan to keep it up (no pun intended).  The End.

Alright then.  As usual, Cronenberg delivers with the crazy and twisted.  This one was treated like the creepy kid with the neck brace trying to find a Table in the Lunch Room when it came out.  Hell, even Cannes was wary of it!  Seeing it in 2015, I can understand it.  I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see it.  This one is sometimes described as a high-class Porn Film.  To be fair, there is alot of sex in this one.  I kind of glossed over that stuff when watching it, so the Film sped along well because of it.  Fun Fact: James Spader apparently has really bad vision, so when you see him in Films without glasses, he can't see shit!  That must make seeing your Co-Stars naked alot less fun.  If you can get past the freaky sex stuff in here, there is some nice Character work by all.  It is definitely not for everyone- no ifs, ands or buts.  Ultimately, this is just Cronenberg being Cronenberg.  If nothing else, it inspired an Episode of Drawn Together (that I already covered)...

Next up, Dario Argento and his Film marred by a Lawsuit.  Did Adrien Brody get paid or do I pay?  Stay tuned...