Review of Crazy/Beautiful (2001) by Bonita N — 16 Mar 2010

The Romeo and Juliet story has been modernized to a high school setting previously, but this romance from director John Stockwell turns the tale inside out. Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.

A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison).

When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper.

Crazy/beautiful is directed by writer, actor, and director John Stockwell, who also penned the same year's Rock Star.