Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
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.
C.R.A.Z.Y. is a richly observed coming-of-age drama set in Quebec, following Zac's journey through family dynamics and sexual identity against a vivid period backdrop. The plot is emotionally layered and character-driven, with the five brothers giving it structural richness and the father-son tension at its heart is genuinely compelling — earning a strong mark. The ensemble acting, particularly Michel Côté as the father and Marc-André Grondin as Zac, is naturalistic and deeply felt, well above average for the genre. The cinematography is competent and period-appropriate but not especially distinctive — it serves the story without announcing itself. Novelty sits at an honest middle ground: the film has real personality and a distinctive Québécois cultural flavor, with its use of music (Patsy Cline, David Bowie) woven meaningfully into the narrative, but the broad strokes of the gay coming-of-age story in a religious conservative family are well-trodden territory. The ending is hopeful and emotionally satisfying but not surprising, landing solidly rather than memorably.