Crazy/Beautiful
Crazy/Beautiful (stylized as crazy/beautiful) is a 2001 American teen 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 out-of-control daughter of congressman Tom Oakley, meets a working class Mexican-American straight-A student, Carlos Nuñez. Nicole is troubled because her mother committed suicide when she was very young, feeling unwanted by her father, who has another  young daughter with his new wife. Carlos, on the other hand, is from a poor background and is working hard towards becoming a Navy pilot. They 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 end his relationship with Nicole, or she will destroy his life. Carlos breaks up with her, which leads Nicole  into depression and back into wild, drunken partying. One night, Carlos calls her and finds out she is getting drunk at a high school party. He saves 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 step-mother 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 getting in the way of Carlos's dreams, so she  decides it is time to stop running away from her problems, feeling she wants to be better for Carlos and have a future with him. They go back home and she makes up with her father. Her father thanks Carlos for not listening to his advice to abandon Nicole. In the end credits, we see that Carlos has become a pilot with the United States Navy. Production. "Crazy/Beautiful" was directed by John Stockwell, who was interested in casting actress Kirsten Dunst as a self-destructive teenager after seeing her role in "The Virgin Suicides". Dunst, who was 18 at  the time, accepted the role because she was tired of playing "sweet" girls in previous films. The actress also helped Stockwell convince Disney executives not to tone down the film's language and adult themes. Although a nude scene was in the script, it was never filmed because Dunst was 17 years old when she got cast and her mother flatly refused to let her do this scene. "Crazy/Beautiful" was planned as an R-rated film, but Disney ultimately wanted a more commercial PG-13 rating and ordered Stockwell to cut 35 obscenities, including a sex scene and a character 's drug use. The film was originally titled "At Seventeen". Reception. "Crazy/Beautiful" 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. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a score of 63% from 99 reviews. The critical consensus read, "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". "The New York Times" critic A. O. Scott praised the lead actors and the film's lively soundtrack, but criticized the other characters for being flat and superficial. He concluded that "Crazy/Beautiful" is "an enormous improvement over the brainless, patronizing teenage romances" of the time, but also admitted that it could have been much better if the filmmakers "had trusted themselves and the actors a bit more". Soundtrack. The soundtrack album was released by Hollywood Records on June 6, 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."