The movie Crash, by writer-director Paul Haggis, is one of the big contenders for Best Picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards. Crash follows a diverse group of strangers in Los Angeles who literally and figuratively crash into one another, altering their lives forever. That premise will sound familiar to fans of Short Cuts or Magnolia or Grand Canyon. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky lived in Los Angeles for a decade. He thinks there’s something about The City of Angels that inspires a new kind of storytelling.