Crazy/Beautiful

Ever since the ‘80s, the teen movie has become a staple cinematic genre all of its own. Unfortunately, however, save for rare productions such as Amy Heckerling’s Loser or the absolutely criminally underrated Can’t Hardly Wait, the days of the more serious teen drama (think The Breakfast Club, Say Anything etc) seem to have long gone, in favour of more smutty affairs such as American Pie and Road Trip - and sadly when you compare how they fared at the box office you can possibly see why it is this way. Not that these more salacious affairs don’t have their place or even merits, just sometimes it’s nice to be reminded how incredibly serious things could be in that hormonal frenzy that was our teens, and not have to deal with perky breasty-bits bouncing in front of our faces every five minutes. Joy of joys, Crazy/Beautiful definitely belongs in the taking it seriously class – and there ain’t a single naked breast in sight (sorry lads).

Taking on board a number of clichés, but mostly deftly remixing them slightly, Crazy/Beautiful is essentially a wrong side of the tracks love affair tale. Unlike say Pretty in Pink, Save the Last Dance or similar, however, here the “richie� is the "bad" one, while the poorer, “minority� kid is the studious one. Well, we did say “slightly� back there. Anyway, the troublemaker for this presentation is Nicole (Kirsten Dunst), the daughter of a congressman whose sole aim in life seems to be to drink, do drugs, piss off her evil stepmom, wag and otherwise be recklessly too cool for school and most everything and everybody else. The studious, dedicated young fellow she inevitably pairs with, after they meet during her doing time in community service cleaning up a beach, is Mexican-American Carlos (Jay Hernandez). He spends two hours a day bussing to and from school, is good to his mom and is a model student with dreams of working his way to the naval academy (whilst Dunst seems more determined to join the navel academy...).

They soon find themselves drawn to each other, with the rather intense and permanently on fast-forward Nicole virtually broad siding Carlos into falling under her spell, regardless of his concerns about her penchant for wild abandon and his general knuckle-down-to-it, serious nature. Factor in pressures from the whole friend dynamic that invariably alters when relationships bloom, the addition of racial tension (more from Carlos’ side than “that white girl’s�, which is a less stereotypical change), familial anxiety from both sides, and Nicole’s many and varied (and often understandable) demons and the scene is set. Will our Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after? Or will all the weights of expectation from all around them and Nicole’s rather unstable nature see it all go pear-shaped?

"I wish I wasn't the child that everybody learned what not to do from."

All of which, stereotypical as it is, is probably more plot than many modern day teen flicks possess. What really sets Crazy/Beautiful apart is the sense of teenage reality that is conjured up. The confusion, the mixed feelings and the sheer intensity of young love is insightfully and observantly confronted, without ever turning sappy or trite. This is helped no end by two fabulous performances from the leads, the hitherto virtually unheard of Hernandez, and Dunst in a role that calls for more than a few cutesy smiles, giggles and jiggles to collect a pay cheque. And all in a visually striking package that is an absolute treat to watch – even if it does all seem to end rather abruptly.

Much “creative� fiddling was undertaken as far as the picture is concerned with Crazy/Beautiful, including a minor washing out of the colour and a slight bluish tint applied to most all of the film. The good news is that the 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced vision all comes up excellently on this disc. Some locations are extremely bright, others substantially dark, and they are all rendered nicely, bar for a modicum of grain in a couple of dark spots. Otherwise the only instance of grain is intentional, in the quite lovely opening sequence which was shot on Super 8.

Black levels and contrast are as good as you could ever wish for, and while detail is at a premium, aliasing isn’t – with only a couple of extremely minor cases noticeable throughout. There are a few slight speckles strewn throughout the film’s duration, but they are fleeting and minor, and shouldn’t put anybody off what is otherwise a fantastic transfer. The layer change isn’t wonderfully placed and tends to be glaringly obvious, but at least it is over and done with quickly.

This local release loses the DTS mix the region 1 version contained, however from all accounts it really is no great loss. The Dolby Digital 5.1 ours comes in is completely serviceable for a predominantly talky film such as this, as there’s little that really requires any sort of sweat-inducing aural workout. As such, other than for a few instances of sound effect support the surrounds are used really only to flesh out the copious amounts of music contained within, and the subwoofwoof too only really subtly adds to these, with little in the way of other effects utilising it. There is some nice stereo work going on across the front channels at times, however.

Dialogue is for the most part clear, although at times some of the actors have a tendency to mumble a little. There are also some instances where Spanish is spoken and we’re left without any form of subtitles. Whilst the message being delivered is generally rather obvious, this is still a little frustrating at times, especially for those of us whose only knowledge of the language is how to ask, “where is the chicken?�

The pleasant enough score comes from Paul Haslinger, which almost fights a losing battle against the huge variety of songs ranging from Latin flavoured to hip-hop and complaint rock that fills up most every other second of screen time. If they were all plopped upon a soundtrack album you’d be looking at buying a sizeable box set...

Ooh, it’s so nice to get a disc for review with audio enhanced animated menus that are so utterly gorgeous you can happily sit and watch them for a while. However, there’s more to be written about than just these pastel-toned beauties, so...

Audio commentary – director John Stockwell and actor Kirsten Dunst: After getting past the disclaimer screen, the two deliver a commentary packed with interesting production information, although Mr Stockwell does seem to have a bit of an auteur complex. Cue Kirsten whose giggling and silliness balances things out so as it all ends up a lot more listenable than if the director had flown solo.

Featurette – Blurring Fiction and Reality: And the award for the most overblown title for an extra feature goes to... This fifteen minute inclusion takes a pleasant break from your typical EPK-styled fare, presenting interview snippets with some of the cast, the director, and numerous members of the crew. It would have been nice to know just who the hell these people in fact were, however the titling machine must have been getting serviced at the time this was put together. This full frame, Dolby Digital stereo affair contains the usual stuff such as some clips from the film and plenty of behind the scenes footage, but also manages to concentrate on some more interesting things, such as the search for the cast and the auditioning process.

International Theatrical Trailer: Well, the teaser at least. This non-enhanced 1.85:1 inclusion serves well as a taste of things to come, but unfortunately doesn’t include the commentary which the region 1 version does. It also features the Dandy Warhols’ fabulous Bohemian Like You, another in a long line of musical victims that appear in the trailer, but not in the actual film.

Deleted scenes: Also sans commentary, the four snips included here (Confrontation at the Pier, Nicole Gets Lost, Future Plans and Carlos Changes His Mind) served to add little to the film, however an explanation as to why they were removed, as included on the region 1 disc, would have been kind of nice.

Sadly, Crazy/Beautiful is another flick to have pretty much belly-flopped at the box office – a shame as it certainly has a lot to offer. The disc is well presented, with near-perfect vision, decent enough audio and a handful of reasonable extras. Hopefully this release to the home market will see it gain a bit more respect for its uniqueness (even despite its many formulaic traits) and heart, and also as a teen flick that offers us characters we can actually care for and even empathise with in realistic situations. After all, how many of us ever forged meaningful relationships with baked goods when we were growing up?