Crazy/Beautiful (stylized as crazy/beautiful) is a 2001 American teen romantic drama film starring Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez (in his film debut). It is largely set at Palisades Charter High School and the surrounding area, including Downtown Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and East Los Angeles.
Poor Latino Carlos Nuñez and the troubled congressman's daughter Nicole Oakley inadvertantly meet far from their school Pacific Palisades High, and soon form an unlikely relationship despite others' opposition.
The film was released on June 29, 2001, to mostly favorable reviews and modestly recovered its production budget.
Plot
<!-- Per WP:FILMPLOT, plot summary should be between 400 to 700 words. -->
Carlos Nuñez is a 17-year-old Mexican-American teen from East LA who rides a bus two hours every day to attend school in the Pacific Palisades for a better education. A straight-A student, he hopes to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and become a pilot.
On a day out with friends at the Santa Monica Pier, Carlos meets Nicole Oakley, a classmate who is doing trash pickup at the beach as part of a DUI sentence. She 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. Nicole's 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 romantic relationship.
The romance runs into obstacles that arise from their different backgrounds, as when Carlos invites Nicole to a family party and she feels out-of-place as the only white person there. She pulls a stunt that lands them both in detention; and when she tells him to lighten up, he angrily points out that she does not appreciate the privileges she has. Despite the obstacles, their relationship blossoms. Carlos tries to steer Nicole away from her drug and alcohol abuse, and she arranges a flying lesson for him, who dreams of being a pilot but has never been in a plane.
Nicole's father offers to help Carlos with his Congressional sponsorship to the Naval Academy, but cautions against dating his daughter because he does not want to see him dragged down by her. Carlos's friends and family also look down on the relationship, fearing Nicole is a bad influence on him.
Feeling pressure from other peoples' expectations, Carlos breaks up with Nicole, sending 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 her from a boy trying to take advantage of her. He drives her home, but they are 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 from home. Carlos rescues Nicole and they run away together. While they are away, Nicole realizes she is obstructing Carlos's dreams, so decides it is time to face her problems so she can be better for Carlos and have a future with him. They return to her home, where Nicole not only defies her stepmother's orders, but also makes up with her father, who thanks Carlos for not listening to his advice to abandon her. As the film ends, Carlos is shown becoming a pilot with the United States Navy.
Cast
<!--- MOS:FILMCAST WP:NOTDATABASE - cast and order per Main Cast opening credits, roles per closing credits scroll --->
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. The film was originally titled "At Seventeen".
Due to an FCC warning to film studios for showing "unwholesome content [to] kids", 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.” It opened at No.9 its first weekend, its only week in the Top10 at the domestic box office.
Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.
The leads' acting was chiefly praised, with many critics saying it gave 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, [so] we care about them as people, not case studies."
Stephanie Zacharek of Salon wrote, "[Dunst's] performance 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." "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," Zacharek wrote.
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, and was featured on their fifth studio album, The Economy of Sound, 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 Buena Vista Home Entertainment (under the Touchstone Home Video banner).