oscar jubis
03-29-2007, 07:04 AM
Zac Beaulieu is born just after midnight on Christmas 1960 into a Catholic family in Montreal Nord. His complicated birth on Jesus' birthday marks him as special from the beginning. His devout mother (Danielle Proulx), who toasts bread with an iron, even believes he has healing powers. Out of four (and later, five) boys, Zac (played by Emile Vallee and Marc-Andre Grondin) is the favorite of his dad, who collects Patsy Cline records and loves to sing along Charles Aznavour's songs. Problem is the otherwise lovable dad is homophobic, and beginning when he is seven, dad notices things about Zac that cause him to worry. The most clearly adversarial relationship is between Zac and older brother Ray, a trouble-prone youth who loves to tease and provoke his brothers. C.R.A.Z.Y. is a comedic family saga and coming-of-age tale concentrating on Zac's 7th, 15th and 20th years. It was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, and co-written by Vallee, who's responsible for material having to do with Catholic upbringing within a large family, and Francois Boulay, who provided the bulk of the scenes dealing with sexual identity and parental intolerance.
Music is as central to Zac's life as it is to his father's. Several key moments in C.R.A.Z.Y. are designed around classic rock songs. There's a made-up Zac's bedroom rendition of Bowie's "Space Oddity". Forced to go to church, a stoned Zac fantasizes to the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil"; he levitates arms stretched to his side as the congregation below provides a chorus of ooh-oohs. It's sequences like these and recurrent visual motifs (smoke rings, for instance) that give the film an original spin. Ironically, issues over clearance rights for these songs have kept C.R.A.Z.Y. out of American theatres. Vallee's feel-good flick was huge at the Quebec box office and an Audience Award winner at Toronto 2005. The Miami Herald review headline was "You'd be nuts to miss it" and the MIFF audience gave the ecstatic Vallee a standing ovation. At 127 minutes, I found the film a tad overlong and bit indulgent, but C.R.A.Z.Y. is a hugely entertaining and satisfying movie.
The dvd released exclusively in Quebec had become an expensive collector's item. Now the film has been released on dvd in the USA. Reportedly a trailer is the only extra but let's not be greedy. I hope you enjoy it.
Music is as central to Zac's life as it is to his father's. Several key moments in C.R.A.Z.Y. are designed around classic rock songs. There's a made-up Zac's bedroom rendition of Bowie's "Space Oddity". Forced to go to church, a stoned Zac fantasizes to the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil"; he levitates arms stretched to his side as the congregation below provides a chorus of ooh-oohs. It's sequences like these and recurrent visual motifs (smoke rings, for instance) that give the film an original spin. Ironically, issues over clearance rights for these songs have kept C.R.A.Z.Y. out of American theatres. Vallee's feel-good flick was huge at the Quebec box office and an Audience Award winner at Toronto 2005. The Miami Herald review headline was "You'd be nuts to miss it" and the MIFF audience gave the ecstatic Vallee a standing ovation. At 127 minutes, I found the film a tad overlong and bit indulgent, but C.R.A.Z.Y. is a hugely entertaining and satisfying movie.
The dvd released exclusively in Quebec had become an expensive collector's item. Now the film has been released on dvd in the USA. Reportedly a trailer is the only extra but let's not be greedy. I hope you enjoy it.