CRASH
1996,
Fine Line,
100 min,
Canada/UK,
Dir: David Cronenberg
Controversy positively mushroomed in the wake of director David Cronenberg’s savagely candid NC-17 adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s infamous 1973 novel. After suffering a catastrophic accident, James Ballard (James Spader) suddenly finds himself sexually aroused by car crashes, something that introduces him to a group of like-minded accident victims that includes Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette. But Vaughan (Elias Koteas), their defacto leader and the most-addicted to the phenomenon of flesh merging with metal, pushes the envelope way beyond near death experiences. With Deborah Kara Unger.