Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: The carjacking scene. Also: the locksmith scene with Sandra Bullock ranting about Michael Pena being a 'gang member' while he's 40 feet away. Dillon saving Newton from the car crash – 'a really well-filmed scene, it's absurd – if I'm her I'd just rather die in the car.'
• Joanna: Michael Pena and his daughter – the invisible cloak scene.
• Van: The Fichtner/Cheadle scene – 'that is the one scene in the movie that overwhelmingly works.' Also: the Tony Danza scene where he tells Terrence Howard he's 'talking a lot less black lately.'
• Also discussed: the Dillon/Newton harassment scene ('the actors are really good'), Terrence Howard getting carjacked and fighting back, and the Cheadle/mother storyline.

• Joanna: The landline Sandra Bullock drops when she falls down the stairs.
• Bill: No camera phones and unironic racism – 'if they're doing this in 2025, somebody's filming something.'
• Van: Smoking in Los Angeles – Matt Dillon 'just ripping cigs, going crazy.'

• Bill: Michael Pena – 'this is an important Michael Pena movie, gets the train rolling for him.' Keith David popping in for one scene and delivering. The whole cast at various career inflection points.
• Van: The MCU connections – two different Rhodeys, the Persian guy who helped 'Iron Man'. Also: the Cheadle/Fichtner scene and the Cheadle/mother storyline both still work.
• Joanna: The indictment of the LAPD. Also: the critique of the health insurance industry (Matt Dillon's father subplot).
• Bill: Sandra Bullock pushing herself beyond rom-coms – possibly created the first 'Karen' character.

Joanna: 'This is an ugly-looking movie. A screenwriter tried to direct a movie.' The only flair: the reverse zoom on Michael Pena when he thinks his daughter got shot. Ryan Phillippe burning the car, taking the gloves off – signaling that what Matt Dillon warned him about has already come to pass.

Joanna: Stereophonics 'Maybe Tomorrow' at the end. Kathleen York's 'In the Deep' was nominated for Best Original Song – 'the most we-wanna-be-'Magnolia' Aimee Mann moment.' Bill: there's really no music in the movie.

• Bill: The Persian shop owner – 'I still have no idea what his arc was.' He can't read that the box says blanks, shoots a little girl, everyone just goes inside. 'Who wants some cereal?'
• Joanna: Ryan Phillippe – miscast. 'Ryan Phillippe has a face I don't trust ever. I want him in 'Cruel Intentions'.' The character's turn makes no sense without more setup.
• Van: Larenz Tate – miscast playing too young. 'We know him. He's more senior than this.' Would have made more sense in the Cheadle role.

• Bill: Sandra Bullock falling down the stairs – the editing is terrible. 'It honestly looks like if we made a Spotify movie about the Ringer and did a quick cut.' Two movies named Crash within 8 years.
• Joanna: Matt Dillon being the only actor nominated, and the hero rescue scene – 'the image of this movie is her clinging to him after the crash.'
• Bill: Cheadle calling his girlfriend Mexican, she angrily says 'my mother's from Puerto Rico and my father's from El Salvador,' and he responds 'why do all your people park their cars on their lawns?' An actual exchange.
• Van: The Terrence Howard character's fecklessness – could 'Orlando Bloom you from Troy.' Saved only because Hustle & Flow (DJ) came out the same year.

• Bill: Michael Pena's 10-second scream when he thinks his daughter got shot – 'what is happening? Why is it so long?'
• Joanna: Beverly Todd as Cheadle's mother.
• Van: Thandiwe Newton's crying scene when she comes to Howard's job – 'her cry is like an overpowered ugly cry.'

• Bill: Sandra Bullock's character was the original Karen – 'the Neil Armstrong of Karens.'
• Joanna: There's a really good short film in here that's just the Ludacris scenes. 'Edit it together – that's rewatchable.'
• Van: 'This is the least effective anti-slavery movie I've ever seen.' Ludacris literally frees slaves, gives them $40 – '$40, no mule.'

• Heath Ledger was supposed to be Ryan Phillippe – dropped out to do 'Brokeback Mountain' instead. Bill: 'This is kind of a different movie if he's in it.'
• John Cusack was attached to the Matt Dillon role, had to drop out. Joanna and Van: 'Would have been fantastic. Legitimately great.'
• Forest Whitaker was supposed to play the Terrence Howard role but filming got delayed.
• Joanna's recast for Phillippe: Matt Damon (same age, this is his Euro Trip/'Ocean's 12' year), Casey Affleck, or Tobey Maguire.
• Bill's director recast: Quentin Tarantino – 'three hours and 30 minutes, it would have been amazing.' Also: Spike Lee's crash would have had 'a lot of crane shots.'

• Bill: Shaun Toub – the Persian guy, also the guy who helped 'Iron Man'.
• Joanna: Jack McGee as the gun store owner. 'I looked at his IMDb – his character names are Detective, Sheriff, Deputy, The Chief.' Also the woman at the locksmith's who won't give up Michael Pena's name.

• Bill: Jennifer Esposito. 'I genuinely liked her. I never understood why there wasn't a better career for her.' Van: 'They just didn't have enough for her to do.'
• Joanna: The chop shop guy – 'Do I look like I want to be on the Discovery Channel?'

• Bill's director: Quentin Tarantino. Van also pitched Spike Lee.
• Joanna's Phillippe recast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, or Tobey Maguire. Van: Josh Hartnett.

• First Best Picture winner released on Blu-ray (June 2007).
• Haggis had a heart attack during the last week of filming.
• Thandiwe Newton wore special protective underwear for the assault scene because Haggis wanted it to look real from the camera's perspective. Bill: 'I'm going to guess no intimacy coordinator in this movie.'
• In 2015, Hollywood Reporter polled Oscar voters – 'Brokeback Mountain' won the revote convincingly.
• The movie became a Starz TV show in 2008.

• Terrence Howard: Yes – 2005 with Crash and Hustle & Flow (Best Actor nomination). Joanna: 'But what about Empire season 1?'
• Paul Haggis: Definitely yes.
• Church of Scientology's Hollywood influence: Yes – 2005 (Haggis wins Oscar, Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch).
• Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Michael Pena, Ryan Phillippe, Thandiwe Newton, Ludacris, Lorenz Tate, Jennifer Esposito: All no.

Bill: This is the movie Spielberg would have tried to take on. 'Safe edgy.' But Scorsese. Joanna: Martin Scorsese's Crash.

• Bill: The Matt Dillon role – 'evil cop PSH.' Van: 'If he's in the role, Phil Seymour Hoffman is going to be so loathful and play it so well' that the movie's attempt at redemption falls apart. Bill: 'If he played it like Talented Mr. Ripley Freddie.'
• Joanna: The Fichtner role in his Charlie Wilson's War mode.
• Note: PSH won Best Actor this same year for Capote.

• Bill: Sandra Bullock screaming about the locksmith 40 feet away. Matt Dillon runs into Thandiwe Newton twice in 3 days in a gigantic city. Don Cheadle gets into a car accident right where his brother was killed – 'one in a kajillion odds.' The white van has keys in it for 12 hours. The chop shop guy knew exactly what to do in an unexpected human trafficking situation.
• Van: Ryan Phillippe happens to pick up Don Cheadle's brother as a hitchhiker. 'You could literally go 10 years without randomly running into somebody in LA.'
• Joanna: The whole movie is a nit. 'There are no human being behaviors in this movie.' The vignette everything-is-connected genre 'has only really worked once – 'Magnolia'.'
• Bill: When Terrence Howard gets chased by cops, they don't check the car for other occupants after stopping him. Also: wouldn't Matt Dillon just let Newton die in the car given she could get him fired?

It became a Starz TV show in 2008. Van: You could build a prestige show around the Don Cheadle case with the dirty cop. Joanna: 'The sequel to this is the hunt for Ryan Phillippe – he burned his car, is he going back to work?'

• Bill: Wayne Jenkins in the Matt Dillon role. Also Danny Trejo – 'how is Danny Trejo not in this movie? It's so LA crimey.'
• Joanna: Wilford Brimley from The Firm in the Fichtner role, showing Cheadle incriminating photos.

• Bill and Joanna: Terrence Howard for Best Supporting Actor.
• Van: Ludacris nomination would have been really fun.

• Bill: If this movie had a black director but was the exact same movie, what happens? Van: 'They'd run him out of town.' Joanna: 'It doesn't get any Oscars.'
• Joanna: How did this movie beat 'Brokeback Mountain'? Bill: 'Old white dudes who were 70-80% of the vote.'

• Bill: NOT the 'fortified underwear' – 'game-worn fortified underwear, no thank you.'
• Van: 'The Saint' Christopher statue.

• Bill: Everyone's a racist.
• Van: 'But also everyone's not a racist. Everyone is a little bad, but everyone is a little good. We're all like pizza, we want to be so bad.'
• Joanna: Public transportation – 'it's not so bad. Better than getting in a car with Ryan Phillippe.'

• Van: Grand Canyon – 'the previous generation's version of this movie.'
• Joanna: '25th Hour' – 'this movie has the hyper-racist rants from all the characters, but it's like, we did this better. This is how Spike did it.'
• Bill: Was going to say American History X, but Grand Canyon is perfect.

Bill: Paul Haggis. Joanna: 'And we all collectively lost.'

Craig hadn't seen it. 'My expectations were low, but holy fuck. I thought this was a horrible movie.' On the lack of nuance: 'How unsubtle it is – shocking.' Perfect age to see it: 72-year-old rich white man. 'Those are all the people that voted for this movie at the Oscars.' Said the Cambodian children subplot was what finally broke him. 'If a Facebook post was a movie.'