Crazy/Beautiful (2001)

At Pacific Palisades High, a poor Latino falls hard for a troubled girl from an affluent neighborhood.

Director:

John Stockwell

Writers:

Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi

Stars:

Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Bruce Davison

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kirsten Dunst	...	Nicole Oakley
Jay Hernandez	...	Carlos Nuñez
Bruce Davison	...	Tom Oakley
Herman Osorio	...	Luis
Miguel Castro	...	Eddie
Tommy De La Cruz	...	Victor
Rolando Molina	...	Hector
Soledad St. Hilaire	...	Mrs. Nunez
Lucinda Jenney	...	Courtney Oakley
Taryn Manning	...	Maddy
Richard Steinmetz	...	Coach Bauer
Ana Argueta	...	Rosa
Neil Looy	...	Jimmy - The Pilot
Marion Moseley	...	Morgan Oakley
Mike Jones	...	Dr. Linehan

Storyline

Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison). When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper.

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | curvacious woman | self destructiveness | teenage angst | teenage rebel | 

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Taglines:

When it's real. When it's right. Don't let anything stand in your way.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving teens, drug/alcohol content, sexuality & language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kirsten Dunst's character Nicole was originally supposed to have a nude scene. When Carlos comes to Nicole's house and they plan to have sex, Nicole leaves the bedroom in a cut off shirt and her underwear and walks into the kitchen past the maid to retrieve some condoms, then returns to her bedroom. In the script she was supposed to do this nude.

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Goofs

The position of Nicole's arms when the police car leaves the house changes.

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Quotes

Nicole: We forgot to wear our blue.
Maddy: Shit. I forgot to wear anything.

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Alternate Versions

The film was originally planned as a R rated feature, but then Disney executives decided to cut the film for a more commercial PG-13 rating. To do this 35 obscenities were deleted, a sex scene was bowdlerized and a character's drug use was deleted.

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Connections

Featured in Beyond Clueless (2014)

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Soundtracks

After All
Written by Ed Roland
Performed by Collective Soul
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Fairly good teen drama.

I saw one promo for this film some time after I saw "Bring it On," and thought it was another Kirsten Dunst comedy.

I was wrong, but pleasantly dissapointed. The thing about teenage movies is that the really good ones don't placate exclusively to the age bracket of which the film is about. "Crazy/Beautiful" focuses on the teenagers, but shows the flavors of the leads' respective cultures, and how they are able to combine both their intellect and emotions to overcome some very superficial barriers, which create profound rifts among human society.

The overall theme vascillates by placing the ball into each of the leads court at various points in the film. This makes for some interesting interaction which, in the real world, I've personally observed. On this score the film is rather accurate.

The film gets a touch melodramatic at points, and there's no one actor to really single out as all the leads have their moment of high energy at various points in the film.

The film itself, because of the subject material, is somewhat lethargic, but does keep one's interest in its presentation.

A definate thumbs up for a night's rental.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

About 17

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,715,060, 1 July 2001

Gross USA:

$16,937,988

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$19,937,988

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Ufland Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 135 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1