C.R.A.Z.Y.
2005 · Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
Original language: French
- comedy
- drama
The story
A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.
What it’s like
Warm, saturated period colour gives way to a restless, music-driven nostalgia: Christmas-lit living rooms, sun-faded suburban streets, and Quebec winters rendered in cold blues and hard snow light. Jean-Marc Vallée moves the camera with handheld energy during family chaos and lets it settle into still, close framings for quieter confessions, while a soundtrack of 1970s rock, David Bowie and Pink Floyd among them, does much of the emotional work. The mood is bittersweet and funny, with an undercurrent of ache: tender, sometimes bruising, never cynical. Its pace is brisk and episodic, moving through years in a rush of kitchen arguments, school dances and drives across the province. Strong family bonds sit beside cruel moments of homophobia and a father who loves his son in the only way he knows how; the arc follows a boy slowly learning to stand apart from the people he loves most. Intensity is moderate: some physical fights and verbal cruelty, brief sexual content, and a few painful scenes of rejection, but no gore. Good for viewers who want a coming-of-age story with humour and heart, a long evening with a glass of something, or anyone drawn to family dramas about identity and belonging.
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