C.R.A.Z.Y.
Zachary Beaulieu was born on Christmas Day, 1960, a fitting date for one destined for the road less travelled.
C.R.A.Z.Y. won the Best Canadian Feature Film prize at TIFF when it played the Festival in 2005, but was unavailable for many years. This screening is a 4K version of the film, supported by Telefilm. The film is presented as an homage to Jean-Marc Vallée, one of Quebec and Canada’s most celebrated filmmakers, who passed on Christmas Day 2021.
Restored 4K Digital Presentation!
Price: $4.99 + taxes and fees
Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. is a wildly entertaining, ambitious, and magical cinematic homage to the pop-culture-saturated Montreal middle-class of the 1970s. It is that rare combination of intimate, character-driven auteur film and universally appealing crowd-pleaser.
Zachary Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin) was born on Christmas Day, 1960, a fitting date for one destined for the road less travelled. His mother (Danielle Proulx) certainly thinks her son is special. But can a sexually adventurous teenager with an affinity for Bruce Lee, John Lennon, and especially David Bowie survive four rough-and-tumble brothers and win the affection of his loving but old-fashioned father (Michel Côté)?
A guiding force in C.R.A.Z.Y. is its soundtrack. Zac’s father is fascinated with Patsy Cline and lip-syncs to Charles Aznavour records at family functions. Zac also expresses himself through music: Pink Floyd and Robert Charlebois dominate his world. The Rolling Stones help him levitate miraculously (and heretically) during a midnight mass. But it’s Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” and its focus on stepping into the unknown, that offers Zac deliverance, supporting his gentle rebellion and affording him the opportunity to dream. Vallée’s visually arresting flourishes have an instant emotional core; the period design offers a dead-on evocation of the time without falling into kitsch.
Brimming with humour and bittersweet drama, C.R.A.Z.Y. is ultimately the triumphant story of a beautifully ordinary family, of parental love, of outsiders struggling to find their place in the world, and of the challenges of growing up different.
Original note by Stacey Donen and Andrew MacIntosh, published as part of the Canada on Film series in 2017
Content advisory: violence, sexually suggestive scenes, drug use