CRSHD (2019) – Film Review

Director: Emily Cohn
Cast: Sadie Scott, Isabelle Barbier, Deeksha Ketar

by Roger Crow / @RogerCrow

End-of-the-year celebrations are underway at a small liberal arts college in Ohio. The night’s main event? A ’Crush party’. The rules? Submit your crush and they get an invite. Or if you’re “crushed” you also get an invite.

Izzy Alden is a virginal self-conscious freshman and the crush party is her last chance to do something about it before summer. Her best friends Anuka and Fiona help Izzy on her mission to score as they pursue romantic interests of their own.

In true millennial fashion, social media plays mediator as the young women chase their crushes in real life and online.

“Bursting with energy”

With its catchy tunes, snappy editing and likeable cast, this is one of those teen comedies that ticks all the usual boxes. It’s obviously the debut feature of a director whose previous shorts clearly impressed producers. Each scene is bursting with wit and energy, and the use of 8-bit style animation give us an idea of where the protagonists are or going to. It’s just the sort of thing Edgar Wright did so effectively in Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Though director Bo Burnham did a better job with Eighth Grade, this should touch a chord with anyone who lives their life on social media. How long they last before defaulting to their tablets and hash tagging CRSHD like their lives depend on it is anyone’s guess.

I’ll admit I was about 20 minutes in before getting a tad bored and checking my mail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook then back to Twitter again, just in case anyone posted anything interesting in the minute since I last checked it.

“Welcome diversion”

Sadie Scott (reminiscent of Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke) is definitely a face for the future, while Isabelle Barbier and Deeksha Ketar are just as watchable. And there are plenty of peripheral characters who are just as likeable, including the obligatory stoner dude bursting with dumb charisma.

There’s plenty of primary colours to engage the viewer, and the inevitable on-screen texting keeps things ticking over. But for all its visual gags and snappy pacing, there’s not a lot to it at all. Which is fine. Things are far too serious these days and a comedy with the substance of candy floss is a welcome diversion.

Writer/director Emily Cohn is clearly a talented filmmaker, and though not perfect, CRSHD isn’t a bad debut. Or to use the vernacular of the movie “Deep like”.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see if anyone has ‘liked’ my animated meme of Annie Walker’s face on an AT AT-Walker strolling past the Rover’s Return. I really need to get out more.