"The Crash" (dir: Gareth Johnson, 2026)

This Netflix documentary is about a teenage girl who is accused of intentionally driving her car into a buiilding, killing her two passengers. The DA on the case worked with the police to identify the causes of the crash, and then successfully prosecuted the girl. He methodically eliminated all other possible causes of the crash, leaving only murder as a possibility. He then charged her with two counts of murder and got a conviction at the trial.

The power of the film is in its depiction of just how badly our society has disintegrated. The girl and her parents, along with other friends and family, all cooperated with this documentary, obviously in the expectation that it would show a miscarriage of justice. Instead, it shows just how off the rails we as a society have become.

The film states that the defense opted for a bench trial rather than a jury trial, but no explanation is offered for this crucial decision. I would have liked to have seen some exploration for the reasons for this choice, since it severely increased the possibility of a conviction for the defendant.

What is striking is all of the footage that exists of life for this group of teenagers bedore the crash. They were heavily into social media, particularly TikTok and Snapchat, and many videos of their everyday life before the crash are readily available. It depicts a hedonistic, self-absorbed life, full of aimlessness with a total absence of any purpose in life.

The hero of this documentary is the hard-working DA, who could easily have shrugged this off as another tragic traffic accident. Instead, he persistently analyzed possible causes, first eliminating drugs and alcohol through testing, and then eliminating accidental error through analyzing data from the car (apparently cars these days have what is equivalent to an airplane's "black box", and it showed the girl made no attempt to slow down or brake). The hard-working, plodding, methodical nature of the DA's approach demonstrates what a good lawyer is all about. The flamboyance and superficial charm which too many clients tend to gravitate to might make a lawyer financially successful, but it does not make him or her a good lawyer.