Customer Reviews

C.R.A.Z.Y.

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the pleasure of seeing this award-winning French Canadian film at the 2005 Toronto Film Fest. I would dearly like to see it again -- even at the exorbitant price of $45 -- but I have to refrain for the time being. The reason: the details don't specify whether or not this film has ENGLISH SUBTITLES, and I strongly suspect that it DOESN'T. (It's been my experience with Quebec DVD films in the past that if they don't specifically MENTION subtitles, there ARE no subtitles.) I've inquired about this to Amazon, but have not received the courtesy of a reply yet. So, much as I would like to recommend that you check out this amazing character-driven film right away, I can only suggest that you hold off for the time being, until the issue is cleared up. (Unless you SPEAK French, of course ... then go for it!)

* Update: Thanks to another Amazon user, I found out that the DVD was available from an alternate source for a lot less money and definitely DID have English subtitles. I strongly believe that it's the same version that Amazon is offering. Why they refuse to update the details is a mystery, but you can now consider it safe to purchase if you don't speak French.

I rarely review items on Amazon, but I just saw this film and believe it deserves far more attention than it is getting in the U.S. If you like movies about people, family, and relationships and don't like Hollywood's oversimplified characters and facile plots, this film is for you.

The story in a nutshell: lower middle class parents raise 5 sons in suburban Montreal from 1960 to the present. There are 2 main themes: the father's relationships with his sons, and the struggle of one of the sons to reconcile his identity with his parents' expectations.

While I was watching this film, I kept waiting for one of the usual missteps: a character simplified to keep the story moving, an action or phrase that isn't genuine, an actor briefly stepping out of character. It didn't happen! This 2 hour movie was flawless in how it portrayed this family and the times they lived in. But don't get the idea this is some french version of Forest Gump. This movie encapsulates a time and place by focusing on the individuals and letting their unique lives tell the story of the generation.

I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the superb acting from this cast you've probable never heard of (I sure hadn't). If this film was in english the actor playing the father would be a slamdunk for the best supporting actor Oscar. The portrayals of the mother, the eldest son as an adult, and all the sons as children were superb. Finally, I would call the lead character's performance a Tour de Force if it weren't for the fact that this somehow implies it was overdone. It wasn't - it was just perfect!

A word of warning. These characters speak Quebecois. Don't expect your high school french or even your college french/english dictionary to let understand the dialogue without subtitles. This is a shame because the color imparted by language is part of the story, especially the French Canadian swear words based on the Catholic liturgy.

Go out of your way to see this film. It's a gem.

It's already Canada's official entry at the Oscars and has been distributed in 50 countries. It also boasts one of the most enthusiastic ratings response on the IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401085/ratings) and it's just been made available on DVD on Amazon. See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401085/combined

It's a coming-of-age story set in Quebec in the 60's, 70's and 80's in a suburban family of five boys. It's been variously acclaimed as the "Best Canadian Film ever" and the "Best Quebec Film of the past 20 years", which is not surprising as the best Canadian films are almost invariably from Québec.

I personally think it deserves all the accolades. On top of good acting, a gripping story, gut-wrenching situations, a wonderful recreation of the era, and a very real Québec atmosphere, it offers visual explosions of pure cinematic genius. It it doesn't get the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar - let alone the nomination- there is something seriously wrong with America!

C.R.A.Z.Y. is a rare film. Wonderful, comic, beautiful, poetic, tragic, and more- it effectively captures the cultural norms and social atmosphere of Montreal in the late 70s. More importantly, it tells the story of a suburban, working class family and their confrontation with the most formidable of challenges that could threaten any family's stability.

Brutally honest, morally visceral, and cleverly presented, C.R.A.Z.Y. will alter the meaning of the word, permanently, for anyone who is willing to accept that the most important foundations of family are love and acceptance.

This could be the best foreign film and for my money one of the best films at the 2005 Oscars.
My wife and I still talk about the film. It is a story about a Quebec family (French) with the focus on the coming of age/coming out story of one of 5 boys. Well done and sensitive, it follows the boy from birth to middle age providing a real insight into what it was like for this person discovering his homosexuality. While the story focuses on his relationship with his father, his mother's role is priceless and the music was exceptional.
A French Canadian masterpiece.

Crazy is a triumph in film making! The movie, beautifully directed and acted is about family and faith. It's the R rated version of the television classic "The Wonder Years" - albeit with more of an edge and gritty appeal.

The film setting is Canada, starting in 1960 and ending in the early 1980's. The viewer is part of the growing up of Zac, the 4th son of a middle-class family with typical hard-working Father and stay at home Mom.

From birth to adulthood, we feel the angst of the father-son relationship as it becomes clear Zac is not like the "other boys". For anyone who grew up (and attempted to come out of the closet) in the 1970's and 80's, this is a must see film.

The story explodes on the screen. Transistion between time periods is extraordinary. This is first and foremost a film about family, about growing up, about faith and religion. It also happens to be about life. The sexuality of the main character is a mere part of this incredible journey.

There was absolutely nothing I disliked about the film, and it has already achieved status with some of my all-time favorite films. This is not another stereo-typical coming-of-age drama. This one stands out from the crowd, way out.

The DVD itself features the movie trailer; the film is in French with English subtitles.

A must see.

If you have seen any of the following films, then you should certainly enjoy Crazy.

Edge of Seventeen

The Sum of Us

Summer Storm

C.R.A.Z.Y. is a miraculous little film from Quebec written with pitch perfect dialogue by Jean-Marc Vallée and François Boulay, on whose memories of his own experiences the story is based, directed with tremendous zest and sensitivity by Jean-Marc Vallée, and with a cast of fine actors that would be impossible to duplicate. Yes, it really is that fine. The title of the film may put some people off as silly, so let it be said early on that the letters C.R.A.Z.Y. represent the first names of the sons of the Beaulieu family - and the fun, hilarious and touching story starts from there!

Christmas Day is the birth of Zachary Beaulieu (impressive Marc-André Grondin as a young man and Émile Vallée as a youth), the fourth son of Gervais Beaulieu (a brilliant Michel Côté) and his seemingly perpetually pregnant wife Laurianne Beaulieu (Danielle Proulx, a superb actress), and at his birth he is immediately dropped on the floor, 'dies' for a few seconds, and is resuscitated, a fact which later leads his mother to consult her Tupperware friend/seer about Zachary's power from God to heal other people. The children include Raymond who is a boisterous youth and later a worthless drifter/panhandler (played by Pierre-Luc Brillant as a young man but also played as a youth by Emmanuel Raymond and Antoine Côté-Potvin); Christian (Maxime Tremblay as a young man and Jean-Alexandre Létourneau as a youth; Antoine (Alex Gravel as a young man and Sébastien Blouin as a youth; and Yvan (Félix-Antoine Despatie and Gabriel Lalancette). Each brother has a particular personality, whether a bookworm, an athlete, a ne're-do-well or a dreamer and we watch the family adapt to each of the brothers' idiosyncrasies.

But it is Zachary who is the focal point as he struggles with his sexual identity from childhood on through his teenage denial years while dating a girl, to his final longing for the unreachable relationship with a man as an adult. His 'powers' of healing he uses to great advantage for his family and he gradually becomes disenchanted with the omnipresent Catholic Church, a force that plays heavily in his fantasy life and dreams and fears. As the years pass from 1960 to 1971 we are allow to watch a family connect, fragment and ultimately survive, always bound to traditions of holiday and love. Gervais claims all of the good points of his boys as patterned after him, yet as he faces Zachary's possibly being gay he balks and it is only after a mesmerizing life changing experience Zachary undergoes that Zachary and Gervais finally find the mutual love they have both needed.

Though the film is long (running time is over two hours) the film seems to fly past us like a comet of experience to which we all can relate. The performances are so very powerful that they sweep us away with the amount of love they exhibit: Danielle Proulx as the mother is so subtle in the little things she does for her beloved though at times wayward sons that she glows and Michel Côté steals the screen as a father searching for understanding of his crew of crazy boys. But the revelation is Marc-André Grondin's embodiment of Zachary that is nothing short of a miracle of acting. There is not a weak moment in this little masterpiece of filmmaking and one hopes that it will be released and widely publicized in the theaters in the USA as it deserves standing ovations! Highly recommended. In French (Quebecois) with English subtitles. Grady Harp, January 07

Canadian Radiance And Zestful Youth? No, that's not what C.R.A.Z.Y. actually stands for in this luminescent coming of age story from north of the border, but it's a pretty good description of my feelings about it. And though I know many people out there think they might not be able to relate to a story about growing up gay in Montreal in the 60's 70's and 80's, I will spend the rest of this review trying to encourage you to see it anyway.

Because a great movie is a great movie. I mean, some films are so exhilarating that they transcend their subject matter. They are so deep that you can get lost in them, whether they reflect your experience or not. And this is such a film.

For the record, this movie at its core is about an asthmatic chain-smoking teen (brilliantly played by Marc-Andre Grondin, who strikes me as a French-Canadian River Phoenix) struggling to please and appease his father, his Father (i.e. God), society, and himself by fighting against who he was born to be.

But it's the fringes, the edges, and the ornamentation that makes this cinematic journey so worth taking. The images, the editing, the score... it's the little touches - the recurring themes and images, repeated over time as we skip through twenty years of life, vividly illustrating that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This film is so wonderful I just basked in its warmth, trying to absorb as much as I could. I'm sure it will hold up to repeated viewings, and I look forward to seeing it again soon (possibly right after I write these words).

First, to answer the question another reviewer had about whether or not this DVD has English subtitles, I can confirm that it does.

I was shocked and delighted at how wonderful C.R.A.Z.Y. is. It is so rare to come across a gem of a film like this. It shows just how great movies have the potential to be, though they almost never rise to this level. As one reviewer put it, C.R.A.Z.Y. is "magical, mystical, sexy, funny, touching and ever so crazy." It is a movie you will never forget.

This is not just one of the best movies of recent years, but one of the best ever made.

It's hard to write a review after all the good ones already written. As a Quebecois very quebec-centric when it comes to movies, I admit my partiality towards C.R.A.Z.Y but let's face it...this movie is one of a kind gem filled with some of the best talents in Quebec.

It may be 45$ but it is worth it, you will watch it again and again.

Attention Rolling Stones Fans: you will never listen to Sympathy for the Devil without thinking about this movie. David Bowie Fans will also be pleased.

Enjoy!!!!!