Word: oscars
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...Paul Haggis, who conceived, co-wrote and directed Crash--and who wrote the script for last year's Oscar winner, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby--dismisses the anti-Canada theory. "This time of year," he says, "everyone tries hard to come up with angles, to make life interesting for us. The truth is that I am thrilled to be nominated in such terrific company. All five films are passion pieces. The filmmakers took big risks, and they all deserve to be rewarded...
...Crash wins on Oscar night next Sunday, Haggis, 52, will have achieved a unique honor: he'll be the first man to write two consecutive Best Pictures. That should make him smile. So should the notion that Crash was helped by an anti-Canada vote--for Haggis is a native of London...
...That the likeliest contenders for Oscar's grand prize have significant Canadian content is one sign of the sizable role the country plays in Hollywood's most vaunted movies. Another is the high percentage of Oscar-nominated pictures that were launched at last September's Toronto International Film Festival. Brokeback was there, as was Capote. TIFF showcased three of the movies whose stars are up for Best Actor, and all five Best Actress films. It's commonly said that the Oscar season starts in Toronto. This year, by all indications, Canada will be there at the finish...
...that bubbles over in the film's schematic, 36-hour story line. The viewpoint is Manichaean--black and white, if you will--but with a twist. Haggis says not that there are good people and bad people, but that we are all capable of being both. A racist cop (Oscar nominee Matt Dillon) can rudely grope a terrified black woman (Thandie Newton) one night and heroically save her life the next...
...Crash earned some rave reviews--notably from Roger Ebert, who recently said the movie ranks with the best Dickens novels. He has pegged it to win the top Oscar. Other reviews read like hate mail. Fueled in part by that stark critical contrast, Crash became, as Cheadle puts it, "the quintessential watercooler movie. It also gave people a way into a discussion that most people don't want to reference. No one wants to say, 'You know I was yelling at this Chinese guy in the store the other day ... ' or 'This person called me a name...