Crazy/Beautiful

''Crazy/Beautiful'' (stylized as ''crazy/beautiful'') is a 2001 American teen romantic drama film starring Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez. It is largely set at Palisades Charter High School and the surrounding area, including Downtown Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and East Los Angeles.

Plot

Carlos Nuñez is a 17-year-old Mexican-American teen who lives in East LA, but takes the bus two hours every day to attend school in the Pacific Palisades for a better education. A straight-A student, he has ambitions of attending the U.S. Naval Academy and becoming a pilot. On a day out with friends at the Santa Monica Pier, he meets Nicole Oakley, a classmate who is doing trash pickup at the beach as part of a DUI sentence. Nicole is the daughter of a US congressman and lives in the upscale Palisades, but she is rebellious, hard-partying, and has a strained relationship with her father. Her troubles stem from her mother’s suicide when she was young, as well as the feeling of being unwanted by her father and his new wife. Despite their differences, Nicole and Carlos begin a relationship.

The relationship runs into hurdles that arise from their different backgrounds, as when Carlos invites Nicole to a family party and Nicole feels awkwardly out of place as the only white person there. Nicole pulls a stunt that gets Carlos put in detention, and when Nicole tells him to lighten up, he angrily points out to her she doesn’t appreciate the privileges she has. Despite the obstacles, Carlos and Nicole’s romance blossoms, with Carlos trying his best to steer Nicole away from her drug and alcohol abuse and Nicole chartering a plane for Carlos, who has never been in one.

Nicole’s father offers to help Carlos with his Congressional sponsorship to the Naval Academy, but cautions against dating his daughter because he doesn’t want to see Carlos getting dragged down by Nicole. The relationship is also looked down on by Carlos’s friends and family, who fear Nicole is a bad influence on him.

Feeling pressure from the expectations others have of him, Carlos breaks up with Nicole, which sends her spiraling back into wild, drunken partying. One night, Carlos calls her and finds out she is getting drunk at a high school party. He goes to the party and saves Nicole from a boy trying to take advantage of her. Carlos drives her home, but they get stopped by the police.

As a result of this incident, Nicole's father and stepmother decide that she needs to go to a boarding school far away from home. Carlos rescues Nicole and they run away together. While they are away, Nicole realizes she is getting in the way of Carlos's dreams, so she decides it is time to face her problems so she can be better for Carlos and have a future with him. They go back home and she makes up with her father. Her father thanks Carlos for not listening to his advice to abandon Nicole. The film ends with Carlos officially becoming a pilot with the United States Navy.

Cast

Production

''Crazy/Beautiful'' was directed by John Stockwell, who was interested in casting actress Kirsten Dunst as a self-destructive teenager after seeing her role in '' The Virgin Suicides''. Dunst accepted the role because she was tired of playing "sweet" girls in previous films. The actress also helped Stockwell convince Disney executives not to tone down the film's language and adult themes. Although a nude scene was in the script, it was never filmed because Dunst was 17 years old when she got cast and her mother flatly refused to let her do this scene. The film was originally titled "At Seventeen".

Due to an FCC warning to film studios for showing "unwholesome content okids", Touchstone Pictures mandated significant edits to John Stockwell’s final cut. Though ''Crazy/Beautiful'' was planned as an R-rated film, in an effort to secure a commercial PG-13 rating, Disney ordered Stockwell to cut 35 obscenities, including a sex scene and scenes of Nicole drinking and using drugs. Of the cuts, Stockwell said, "We were trying to make a cautionary tale, and we couldn't show the behavior we were trying to caution people away from.”

Reception

''Crazy/Beautiful'' opened at #9 at the U.S. box office, taking in $4,715,060 USD during its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed a worldwide total of $19,937,988 on a $13 million budget. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a score of 63% from 99 reviews. The critical consensus reads, "The story is not new, but the film gets credit for trying to move away from the genre's cliches. Kirsten Dunst and newcomer Jay Hernandez give believable performances". Metacritic gave the film a score 61 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The acting of the leads was chiefly praised, with many critics saying the movie gives Dunst the opportunity to show her range as an actress. In a three-star review, Roger Ebert wrote ''Crazy/Beautiful'' "is an unusually observant film about adolescence," and that Dunst and Hernandez bring "real conviction to the roles, owe care about them as people, not case studies."

Stephanie Zacharek of ''Salon'' wrote, " unst'sperformance cuts deep...What’s so painful, and so moving, about her performance is that she's bracingly alive every minute. Her self-inflicted numbness is a defense against suffering, but not a solution to it. And when she looks into Carlos' eyes, she gives the sense of, momentarily at least, seeing her way clear.” The ''Greensboro News & Record'' said Hernandez "manages to register such traits as honesty and integrity without being stuffy about it. That's not as easy as it might look."

The film was also positively cited by critics for its handling of racial and cultural dynamics. "This is a classic love story, but one that's not afraid to take a few jabs at the cluelessness of goodhearted liberals who, despite their admirable intentions, can never quite grasp how the other half lives," wrote Zacharek.

''The New York Times'' critic A. O. Scott praised the lead actors and the film's lively soundtrack, but criticized the writing of other characters as flat and superficial. He concluded that ''Crazy/Beautiful'' is "an enormous improvement over the brainless, patronizing teenage romances" of the time, but also admitted that it could have been much better if the filmmakers "had trusted themselves and the actors a bit more".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released by Hollywood Records on June 26, 2001. Seven Mary Three's " Wait" served as the album's English lead single, while La Ley's "Siempre (Everytime)" was its Spanish lead single. The music video for "Wait" was also directed by John Stockwell and featured Dunst and Hernandez. David Gray's song " This Year's Love" is featured in the film but is not included on the soundtrack. Amazon.com editorialist Rickey Wright gave a mixed review of the soundtrack, citing groups like The Dandy Warhols, Mellow Man Ace, and Delinquent Habits as "evocative" while also stating that it "hardly makes a good argument for the continuing validity of guitar rock."

Home media

''Crazy/Beautiful'' was released on DVD on November 13, 2001 by Touchstone Pictures.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crazy Beautiful
2001 films
2000s high school films
2001 romantic drama films
2000s teen drama films
2000s teen romance films
American high school films
American romantic drama films
American teen drama films
American teen romance films
2000s English-language films
Films about interracial romance
Films directed by John Stockwell
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Touchstone Pictures films
Films about interclass romance
Films scored by Paul Haslinger
Films with screenplays by Phil Hay (screenwriter)
Films about the United States Navy
Films with screenplays by Matt Manfredi
2000s American films