Product Details

• Actors: Jay Hernandez, Taryn Manning
• Directors: John Stockwell
• Format: NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 555372628X

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Opposites attract in this love story for the younger set. Carlos is a straight-laced poor boy working his way toward a better life. Nicole is a rich girl with a wild streak who can't seem to stay out of trouble. Can it be that they're meant for each other? Yes, of course it can. Crazy/Beautiful follows a familiar pattern--the two young lovers come from different worlds, and no one else understands them--but has a few intelligent wrinkles to the standard star-crossed plot. Nicole's dad, for example, actually likes Carlos and worries that Nicole will corrupt him. Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez give assured performances as the young lovers, and the movie's message of tolerance comes across without being preachy. As teen love stories go, you could do far worse. Adults may be left cold by Crazy/Beautiful, but teens--especially those with a dramatic streak--will enjoy this well-intentioned romance. --Ali Davis

From The New Yorker

Nicole (Kirsten Dunst), the messed-up daughter of a liberal, rich, white congressman (Bruce Davison), falls in love at her Los Angeles high school with Carlos (Jay Hernandez), a working-class boy of Mexican descent who believes in sobriety, obedience, and getting good grades. The two writers, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and the director, John Stockwell, have some serious fun spinning out the class and ethnic ironies, and Dunst, who wears stressed jeans and little tops that terminate five inches above her navel, plays the alcoholic and self-loathing Nicole as if her life depended on it. Within the limits of teen romance-and the limits, too, of family drama-the movie is honest, straightforward, and touching. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kirsten Dunst shines in an engaging character study, January 6, 2002

By 

"flickjunkie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crazy/ Beautiful (DVD)

I hesitated to see this film because having seen my share of Kristen Dunst movies, I wasn't sure I was ready for another teen sugar attack. However, this film turned out to be a pleasant departure from the perky candy coated parts Dunst has played in the past. In fact, this might be a watershed role for her, marking her transition from teen roles to adult roles.

Dunst plays Nicole Oakley, a troubled teenager from a privileged family who falls in love with Carlos (Jay Hernandez), a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The story is nothing new, but the presentation is remarkably good, with far greater maturity than one would expect from a high school flick.

This film is exceptional considering its limited budget and the fact that most of the major players have very little experience at this level. For writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, this is their first feature film screenplay. For director John Stockwell, it is only his second feature film. Likewise for Jay Hernandez and Taryn Manning. Many of the Latino actors were cast from a local high school, so they are in their first film. By comparison, Kirsten Dunst is a jaded veteran. The use of so many ordinary (not professional actors) high school students in the film gives it a very genuine look and feel.

Stockwell turns in an impressive directorial effort with a story that is much more complex than it seems at first blush. It starts out as your standard boy-meets-girl love story. They flirt, act silly, have sex, fall in love and create beautiful romantic images on the beach. Just when you think it is going to be a real yawner, things begin to get complicated. Stockwell slowly peels away the layers of the two main characters and their families to reveal subterranean shearing forces that will act to tear them apart.

Nicole, who at first seems to be just a wild, rebellious brat, turns out to be far deeper and more emotionally unsettled than one would ever imagine. Carlos' humble roots and burning ambition bring the relationship to a breaking point when he has to decide between Nicole and his shot at Annapolis. Stockwell takes what could have been a trite teen romance and turns it into an engaging character study. While his pace is perhaps a bit too deliberate and inclusive, his sensitive treatment of the motivation of the characters and his style of unraveling their psyches slowly before our eyes makes for great drama. This film is full of "ahah" moments, where you find yourself re-evaluating the characters as some new piece of information is revealed.

Kirsten Dunst has had an active career, appearing in over twenty films before the age of twenty (which age she will attain in April 2002). This is by far her best performance, helped by the fact that it is the most complex character she has ever played. There was a hint that her ability extended beyond the superficial teen characters she normally plays in the film "Virgin Suicides", where she played a sullen, bad girl with some serious problems. As Nicole in this film, she shows us that she has extraordinary range. She really cuts loose with the character, taking her to exhilarating and uninhibited highs as well as crashing, depression ridden lows. Though this is a minor film from a box office perspective, this performance should get the attention of casting directors and open the door for her to get bigger, more serious parts. Jay Hernandez shows promise, although he seems a little wooden in this film. His great strength (other than his obvious good looks) is his sincerity. He comes across as if he means every word he says.

I was going crazy trying to figure out where I had seen Bruce Davidson (who played Tom Oakley) before. He played Willard in the film of the same name (1971) about a sociopathic kid who befriended rats and used them to attack his enemies. Davidson gives a good performance here as Nicole's congressman father, particularly in the touching scene at the end.

Herman Osario, Miguel Castro and Tommy De La Cruz were all cast for their first film in open auditions from thousands of Latino high school students. They provide the film with some of its lighter moments as Carlos' friends, and they all give fantastic performances, basically being themselves. Taryn Manning rounds out the cast as Nicole's best friend and does a fine job of playing the wild thing.

I liked this film more for the drama than the romance. I rated it an 8/10. Kirsten Dunst takes a quantum leap with this performance. It is not for impatient viewers or those who despise slushy romances. However, for those who like a good character study with emotionally charged content and complex characters it is well worth a look.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy/Beautiful, July 2, 2001

By 

"spined_wurm" (USA) - See all my reviews

Crazy/Beautiful is a groundbreaking emotional story about two young lovers, Carlos(Jay Hernandez) and Nicole(Kirsten Dunst), on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Carlos is a straight-A-student whose priorities are to graduate and gain acceptance into the naval academy. Nicole is a disgruntled 17-year-old whose priorities include finding distractions to cope with the loss of her mother. She has no college ambition, she likes to get lost in wide variety of drugs and sexual activities and she swears she will never trust anyone again after her mother's suicide. When Carlos meets Nicole for the first time, he finds her "scary" because she is extremely unpredictable with her wild behavior. Nicole falls strangely in love with Carlos and believes that they should always be together. When Carlos finds himself in the position in which he must choose between Nicole and his school work, he chooses her. The two fall madly in love and a number of situations fall into play because of this. This movie was one of the most emotional pieces Kirsten Dunst has ever been in and it describes a situation far beyond the comprehension of anyone who was not actually in one. I think she executed the role perfectly. Jay Hernandez gave an excellent performance as well as the young, determined Latino boy in love. I thought this was an excellent movie and I hope you do too.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Upside down cliches, March 24, 2002

By 

Sheryl Katz (Chatsworth, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crazy/ Beautiful (DVD)

I live with an LA High School teacher; we are both in our fifties yet we both enjoy teen oriented movies, at least to some degree. However, we are also highly sensitive to the distance from reality in most of these movies, and this one kept us awake and interested. Crazy/Beautiful may be another fairly tale reworking of the star-crossed lovers theme, but it also presents its characters with a gritty realism. These kids in this movie are a lot like real kids that we know and see everyday.

Kirsten Dunst is still portraying a teenager, but proves she can handle adult complexity. Jay Hernandez is wonderfully unaffected. The story is in many respects by the numbers, but it turns most of the movie cliches upside down - the rich kids father approves of the poor kid - it's his own daughter he has trouble with. The Latino kid is appealing to the white girls, but he isn't a white boy in a Latino skin, he is comfortable in his identity. I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to ruin the story for those who haven't seen it.

This is a fun film to watch with superb performances. As others have said, it has no villains just people who look like them from the vantage of the main characters. It's a feel good teen movie with something to interest the brain.