[CRAZY EYES is now available on home video.]
Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
Apparently the Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Company got some publicity (and reminded people that they're
still in business) by publicly inviting at-risk/chemically impaired
starlets Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes over here for driving
lessons. Aww, they probably just want to launch a cable sitcom with
the ladies called "Hot in Akron." Either that or NE Ohio is
one place where the drinking is so all pervasive that you could
actually be pulled over for insufficient blood-alcohol count;
therefore showbiz folk would be safe. I've pondered that sometimes,
coming home white-knuckled from my night jobs. Dr. Bob and Bill W,
yeah, sure, right.
Ms. Bynes or Ms. Lohan might have
purchased some much-needed goodwill and a pint of artistic integrity
via appearing in CRAZY EYES, an indie which, despite upscale
environments, has a tone not unlike the lowlife addiction-fiction of
Charles Bukowski (inspiration for BARFLY) and Hubert Selby Jr.
(inspiration for LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN and REQUIEM FOR A
DREAM).
Co-writer and director Adam Sherman -
through the voice of his stand-in, star Lukas Haas - says at the
outset that his bluesy LA story is mostly true and autobiographical,
and one should ignore any legal disclaimers. That's kind of gutsy,
considering what follows. Zach (Haas) is a young, divorced, Los
Angeles alcoholic with lots of money, apparently handouts from his
ever-adoring and probably-would-vote-for-Romney straitlaced parents.
Zach has a listless routine of bicoastal sexual conquests and pub
crawls/fights alongside his drinking buddies. The only things that
seem to engage him are the custodial visits with his small son.
Then Zach meets Rebecca (Madeline
Zima), whom he nicknames `Crazy Eyes.' She's a vaguely boho-girl
bar-hopper who, pleading other boyfriends/relationships and alibis,
refuses to have sex with Zach, even as she gets smashed and sleeps
naked by his side regularly. Zach finds her fascinating. Yet he still
grabs a one-night stand when he can, and he goes on with everything
short of date rape - they joke about it - to have carnal knowledge of
Rebecca.
Will their relationship still endure
if/when they go all the way? Will Zach's pathologies make him lose
all contact with his boy? How come non-drinker Charles Cassady
couldn't get a date to save his life, while females always throw
themselves at passed-out-in-their-own-puke creeps like Zach? Okay,
that last question goes unanswered by this narrative. Maybe in the
Director's Cut.
Note lots and lots of ever-so-symbolic
camera angles of the characters seen through transparent cups and
liquor bottles. Haas and Sherman do find shot-glasses of humanity in
the self-loathing and oft-loathsome Zach, though probably too few for
some viewers' tastes. Leading-lady Madeline Zima alone has more
vomiting scenes for one character than I can remember since on-camera
upchucking became a dramatic keystone of the 1990s (thank you, CRYING
GAME). Some well-known character actors also turn in nice
supporting bits, including Jake Busey, all too often given one-note
monster roles like his talented father Gary. Good to see them getting
into what was obviously a non-genre, non-formulaic project. Viewer
Advisory: despite all the discussions about sex and displays of
skimpy lingerie, actual nudity and graphic intercourse is brief or
withheld. Appropriately enough.
Press material with Sherman claims the
filmmaker and his real-life `Crazy Eyes' (whose name escapes me, but
it wasn't Nora Ephron or Nancy Myers - or Lindsay Lohan or Amanda
Bynes) pretty much wrote the script as they lived it, day to day,
night to boozing night. Yes, movie people are magical. And some think
that having more of them around here will uplift the economy. Well,
maybe in Warehouse District niteclubs and Flats saloons. (2 3/4 out
of 4 stars).
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