Crazy/Beautiful

Crazy/Beautiful
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Stockwell
Produced by	Rachel Pfeffer Harry J. Ufland Mary Jane Ufland
Written by	Phil Hay Matt Manfredi
Starring	Kirsten Dunst Jay Hernandez
Music by	Paul Haslinger
Cinematography	Shane Hurlbut
Editing by	Melissa Kent
Studio	Ulfland Production
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	June 29, 2001 (2001-06-29)
Running time	99 minutes 135 minutes (Director's cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$19,937,988

Crazy/Beautiful (stylized as crazy/beautiful) is a 2001 romantic drama film starring Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez. It is largely set at Palisades Charter High School and the surrounding area, including Downtown Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Malibu (where Dunst's character lives), and East Los Angeles (where Hernandez's character lives).

Plot

Nicole Oakley, the spoiled, rich, out-of-control daughter of congressman Tom Oakley, meets a working class Mexican-American straight-A student, Carlos Nuñez, resulting in a clash of cultures, values, and a love affair. Nicole is troubled because her mother committed suicide when she was very young. She feels unwanted by her father, who is now married to another woman and has another young daughter with his new wife. Carlos, on the other hand, is from a poor background and working hard towards becoming a Navy pilot. They meet at a beach while Nicole is on "community service" and discover they attend the same high school.

They later fall in love, and Carlos spends so much time with her that he stops performing well in school. Carlos is applying to the U.S. Naval Academy and Nicole's father suggests Carlos talk to him about gaining his Congressional sponsorship to the Academy. During their meeting, Nicole's father tells Carlos that he needs to break up with Nicole if he does not want her to destroy his life. Carlos does break up with her, which leads Nicole into depression and back into wild, drunken partying. One night, Carlos really misses her and when he calls her, he finds out she is getting drunk at a high school party. He crashes it and saves a drunken Nicole from a boy trying to take advantage of her. Carlos drives her home, but they get 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 away from home; Carlos rescues her and they run away together. While they are away, Nicole realizes she is really messing up Carlos's life by taking him away from his dreams and goals, so she decides to sober up. They go back home and she makes up with her father. Her father thanks Carlos for not listening to his advice to stay away from Nicole. In the end credits, we see that Carlos has become a pilot with the Navy.

Cast

• Kirsten Dunst as Nicole Oakley
• Jay Hernandez as Carlos Nuñez
• Bruce Davison as Tom Oakley
• Lucinda Jenney as Courtney Oakley
• Taryn Manning as Maddy
• Soledad St. Hilaire as Mrs. Nuñez
• Rolando Molina as Hector
• Herman Osorio as Luis
• Miguel Castro as Eddie
• Tommy De La Cruz as Victor
• Richard Steinmetz as Coach Bauer
• Ana Argueta as Rosa

Production

Kirsten Dunst was originally supposed to have a nude scene; in the scene in which Carlos comes to Nicole's house and they plan to have sex, Nicole leaves the bedroom in a cut off shirt and her panties 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 completely nude. Dunst considered this, and went as far as to rehearse the scene totally nude on a closed set in front of only co-star Hernandez and director Stockwell, but decided not to go through with it on film.

The director's cut of the film was originally rumored to contain the above nude scene, but that ended up not being true. Director Stockwell maintains that he did not film Dunst while she was nude.

The film also features Jay Hernandez's close friend Ruben Chacon as one of his friends in the beginning of the film.

The film features several close up-shots of a General Motors EV1, a plug-in electric vehicle as the vehicle of Dunst's character's father, an ecologist. This is notable due to the fact that all EV1s were recovered from customers by General Motors (and most were destroyed by crushing) about a year prior to the release of the movie (see Who Killed the Electric Car?).

There are a few scenes towards the middle of the film, specifically when Nicole and Carlos are seen spending time on the beach together, in which Nicole's hair appears slightly longer and has somewhat of a reddish coloring to it that is not visible throughout the rest of the film. It was later explained in the DVD commentary by Dunst and Stockwell that this was because these scenes were part of re-shoots that were done after the film had initially wrapped production while Dunst was in the midst of filming the first Spider-Man film, in which her character has red hair.

Reception

Although the film initially came and went at the box office when it was released in the summer of 2001, Kirsten Dunst was praised for her performance. The film opened at #9 at the U.S. Box office taking in $4,715,060 USD during its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed a worldwide total of $19,937,988 on a $13 million budget.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released by Hollywood Records on June 2006, 2001; Seven Mary Three's "Wait" served as the album's English lead single; La Ley's "Siempre (Every Time)" was its Spanish lead single. "Wait" charted considerably well and its music video, directed by the film's director Stockwell, featured Dunst and Hernandez. 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."

1. "Ten Le Fe" - Mellow Man Ace
2. "Who am I?" - Lily Frost
3. "To Be Free" - Emiliana Torrini
4. "Wait" - Seven Mary Three
5. "Every Time" - La Ley
6. "La Reina Del Lugar" - Serralde
7. "Shattered" - Remy Zero
8. "Boulevard Star" - Delinquent Habits (featuring Michelle)
9. "This is Not My Life" - Fastball
10. "Sumpin'" - The Pimps
11. "Alright" - Osker
12. "Sleep" - The Dandy Warhols
13. "She Gave Me Love" - The Getaway People
14. "I Want to Believe You" - Lori Carson & Paul Haslinger
15. "Perfect" - Maren Ord
16. "Siempre" - La Ley
17. "This Year's Love" - David Gray

External links

• Crazy/Beautiful at the Internet Movie Database
• Crazy/Beautiful at Box Office Mojo
• Crazy/Beautiful at Rotten Tomatoes
• Crazy/Beautiful at Metacritic