The Crash is an intriguing true-crime documentary on Netflix that hits a narrative wall, echoing its own case. It follows the fatal 2022 car crash of three young people in Steubenville, Ohio. The 17-year-old driver, Mackenzie Shirilla, was the only survivor and eventually tried for their murders. It appears that the car was going 100 miles per hour with no attempt at braking, no skid marks, no defensive maneuvering to avoid a high-speed head-on collision with a brick wall. The 90-minute documentary examines the tragedy and tries to ask how it could happen and then shifts into why, delivering agonizingly little in answers. The case seems pretty clear with forensic evidence, so it becomes an exploration into who Mackenzie Shirilla is and what might have driven her to make such a reckless decision. The problem for the movie is that Mackenzie is unhelpfully her own brick wall. She has convenient amnesia and doesn’t remember anything about the crash, though she knows she would never have done it. The selling point of “Mackenzie speaks out since her trial” is mitigated when she offers so little of value besides canned apologies and she refuses to divulge insights while her onset lawyer consults her interview responses. This, frustratingly, can make the movie feel rather inert when it comes to a deeper examination on the kind of person who might commit such an impulsive and volatile act. How did Mackenzie possibly end up like this? Is it negligent parents who refuse to hold their child accountable? Is it the allure of social media creating a false sense of self? Was her relationship with her boyfriend and crash victim as wholesome as believed? Are we getting drunk on outrage and vilifying this woman to make ourselves feel morally superior? The movie doesn’t offer answers or even exploration of these issues, and so The Crash feels like a protracted episode of any Dateline case-of-the-week scandal rather than an engrossing doc.

Nate’s Grade: C+