The Crash Review
Director: Gareth Johnson
Date Created: 2026-05-15 23:27
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The Crash Review: The Netflix true-crime documentary film is directed by Gareth Johnson and has a runtime of 1 hour and 32 minutes. It centres on the horrific car accident that occurred in Strongsville, Ohio, in 2022, that resulted in the death of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan while sparing the life of Mackenzie Shirilla, the driver. The film explores whether this incident was an accident brought about by irresponsible teenagers or whether it was an act that was intentionally committed out of a bad relationship.
The Crash Review
Most people going into Netflix’s The Crash documentary are probably familiar with the viral headlines surrounding Mackenzie Shirilla and the disturbing CCTV footage of the speeding car crashing directly into a building. Therefore, this raises the question of not knowing the details of “what happened” but rather, why it happened and whether or not Mackenzie was determined to kill the two boys.
Gareth Johnson manages to make the Netflix documentary The Crash swift and organised, but stays within the limits of the investigation. The documentary follows the chronological order, where the story starts with the crash and then slowly opens up to the personal issues that were between Mackenzie and Dominic. There is nothing dramatic in the story, something very important for such an episode, and everything is well-coordinated, including the use of CCTV, social media posts, texting, and evidence from the police.
The documentary The Crash’s true horror comes from the meticulous dissection of the accident. The revelation of the lack of skid marks before the collision instantly sets the scene for a terrifyingly different case. It is then followed by the evidence provided by the Event Data Recorder that shows the acceleration pedal being pushed down completely a few seconds before the accident. Although the technical details were clearly explained, making everything understandable, the documentary was not turned into an educational film in the strictest sense. What I liked best about the documentary was the recreation of events that took place during the incident.
The heart of this documentary film The Crash, lies in Mackenzie herself, and indeed, it is hard not to feel intrigued and frustrated at the same time when watching this woman. Mackenzie maintains throughout the documentary that she blacked out when the accident occurred, and she cannot recall anything that took place. The documentary does not tell the audience what it should be thinking about, but as more evidence begins to accumulate in the documentary, the difficulty of overlooking it is becoming greater. This is even more alarming when one takes note of the emotional manipulation that appeared to be going on between them.
But at the same time, what really got my attention is how it leaves this sort of uneasy feeling. Even though one might think that Mackenzie had deliberately run into the crash, there still remains the nagging doubt whether or not Mackenzie had any intention at all during her decision-making process because of the lack of information regarding her psychological state in the car. There is nothing that could provide a definitive answer as to what had happened in her head back then.
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One other thing that I enjoyed about the movie is that it delves into the present-day teen relationships and social media trends without being preachy about it. Mackenzie’s digital persona ends up being quite a significant aspect of the movie, mainly due to her social media videos and activities playing a huge role in the perception people have formed about her. In this respect, the film brings up an unpleasant yet true observation regarding the way social media influencers can actually exhibit their unstable personal life on social media platforms.
But at the same time, the documentary cannot be deemed perfect. For example, sometimes, the film comes off as somewhat one-sided, supporting the viewpoint of the prosecutors. Even though the documentary is built around an extensive interview with the parents of Mackenzie, it looks like their argument is quite poor and emotional, and people could easily ignore it. As for me, the documentary should spend more time on analysing the argument of the defendant than showing it as the last attempt to avoid responsibility.
At the same time, some viewers may find it uncomfortable to watch the discussion of the negative traits of Mackenzie’s personality. Indeed, even though Mackenzie committed a truly terrible crime, she was still a person, and sometimes it looks like this documentary tries to depict her as an antagonist in this story instead of talking about her psychology and emotions. But it is still just a documentary, not a thriller film.
Netflix The Crash Review: Summing Up
Overall, The Crash is one of the most interesting true-crime documentaries that can be found on Netflix. As mentioned before, the documentary can be very disturbing and scary, making it impossible for viewers to stop viewing it after starting. However, apart from the documentary being shocking to some extent, what makes it really interesting and unique is how dysfunctional family relations, lack of accountability, rebelliousness in teenagers, and other factors lead to the extremely horrible result when there is no emotional stability.
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