Crazy/Beautiful

**Crazy/Beautiful** is a 2001 American teen romantic drama film directed by John Stockwell, which was released by Touchstone Pictures on June 29, 2001.

## Plot

Carlos Nunez (Jay Hernandez), a poor Latino teenager who attends a high school in an affluent neighborhood, falls in love with Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), a troubled teenage girl, who is the daughter of a wealthy congressman, but Nicole's self-destructive tendencies threaten to destroy Carlos's ambitions.

## 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
* Cory Hardrict as Wilcox

## Production

Originally titled "At Seventeen", director John Stockwell was interested in casting Kirsten Dunst in the role of a self-destructive teenager after seeing her in the 1999 film, The Virgin Suicides.

Dunst (who was 18 years old at the time) accepted the role of Nicole Oakley because she was tired of playing "sweet" girls in previous films. She also helped Stockwell convince Disney executives not to tone down the film's language and adult themes.

The film was originally planned as an R-rated film, but Disney ultimately wanted a more commercial PG-13 rating and ordered John Stockwell to cut out 35 obscenities (including a sex scene and a character's drug use).

Although a nude scene was in the script, it was never filmed because Kirsten Dunst was 17 years old when she was cast in the film and her mother flatly refused to let her do the scene.

Filming for "Crazy/Beautiful" took place from August 7, 2000 to October of 2000 in California (in Santa Monica, the Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Malibu and Twentynine Palms).

Jay Hernandez had to learn many of his Spanish lines phonetically because he doesn't speak fluent Spanish.

Many of the high school scenes were shot at a real high school. John Stockwell wanted actual students to be extras in the film and most of them had no acting experience.

## Box Office

"Crazy/Beautiful" opened at #9 at the U.S. box office, grossing $4,715,060 during its opening weekend. Overall, it grossed $16,937,988 on an estimated budget of $13,000,000.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Crazy/Beautiful" has an approval rating of 63% based on 99 reviews with an average rating of 5.70\10.

The site's consensus reads: *"The story is not new, but the film gets credit for trying to move away from the genre's cliches. Kirsten Dunst and newcomer Jay Hernandez give believable performances."*

Metacritic gave the film a score 61 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Lisa Alspector of the Chicago Reader called it a *"gutsy romance-drama that breaks a cardinal rule of storytelling and pop psychology."*

Rene Rodriguez from the Miami Herald described the film as *"fast, wacky and bubbling with passion or dark, troubled and doomed"* and USA Today called it an *"atypical teen drama about opposites attracting that often (and happily) confounds expectations."*

Stephanie Zacharek from Salon wrote: *"Even after losing its sexiest, tawdriest moments, this teen romance is still hotter, smarter and more fearless than its Hollywood contemporaries."*

The New York Post called Kirsten Dunst's performance "*courageous"* and *"convincing"*.

Amy Taubin from the Village Voice said it was *"overproduced as a Super Bowl soft-drink commercial, so much so that even its potentially insightful moments seem like movie fakery."*