Anyone who grew up in the 2000s would agree that there are a fair few things we would all rather forget about that particular decade.
From Trucker caps, Crocs, and chunky wallet chains through to Blackberries, Beyblades, and saying “Whassup?” on the phone at any given moment, some teenage trend are just better left in the past.
It’s a slightly more complicated situation with the teen movies of the era, though. Sure, these films can be corny, clichéd, or just a little cack-handed in their portrait of adolescent life, but they still offer an amusing window into another time.
They happened in a time long before Facebook, selfies, and Justin Bieber, when our pop stars were overhappy and sported the kind of frosted tips that are these days more commonly associated with Mr. Flavortown himself, Guy Fieri.
Some of the movies on this list have aged better than others. Some of the stars involved in these once-popular teen favorites have aged better than others too. However, that’s beside the point.
This list is all about revisiting some of those once beloved flicks with a fresh and modern perspective.
In some cases, you’ll wonder how some of these movies managed to slip off into the ether to lie dormant, largely forgotten. In other instances, the reasons for their dormancy will become immediately apparent.
Some of the films on this list feature future A-listers like Chris Evans, Blake Lively, James Franco, Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Anna Faris, and Kirsten Dunst. Others include forgotten favorites like Shane West, Julia Stiles, Jason Biggs, Colin Hanks, Michelle Trachtenberg, and the Olsen Twins.
Either way, get ready to feel nostalgic because here are the 25 Forgettable ’00s Teen Movies Only True Fans Remember.
Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
Often mistakenly associated with inferior spoof duds like Date Movie and Superhero Movie, Not Another Teen Movie is perhaps most notable for representing Chris Evans’ movie debut– not that Evans is all that proud about starring in the movies these days.
Wryly reflecting on the experience during an interview with The Wrap, Evans laughed: “The movie had me stick a banana in my [buttocks], it wasn’t exactly some highbrow art.” He was half right.
While Not Another Teen Movie reverts to gross-out humor a little too often, it’s still a witty, well-observed spoof.
Lampooning countless 8'0s and ’90s teen favorites with aplomb, even Evans’ banana-based gag is a clever gender-swap send-up of Ali Larter’s famous whipped cream bikini from Varsity Blues.
Evans’ Jake Wyler is a walking, talking Freddie Prinze Jr. lampoon, displaying the kind of comic timing that put him a cut above the other beefcakes when casting Captain America a few years later.
He’s not the only one having a blast either, with Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Chyler Leigh, Mia Kirshner, and Samm Levine all on fine form in their allotted roles, sending up many a familiar cinematic high school character trope in the process.
Throw in an amusing musical number written by Ben Folds and you have a movie that, while crude at times, still boasts enough intelligent gags to keep comedy fans and teen movie lovers happy.
Good Charlotte even pop up, performing in the movie’s prom scene, though the less said about that, the better.
Sugar & Spice (2001)
This cheerleader crime comedy courted controversy upon release for what some critics viewed as an irresponsible depiction of teen-led gun violence.
Based on a real-life series of robberies involving four high school girls from Houston in Texas, Sugar & Spice features some 2000s teen movie heavyweights in the form of Mena Suvari, Marley Shelton, and James Marsden, but doesn’t quite take full advantage.
What it does do is tell the story of five popular high schoolers, who hitch upon the idea of robbing banks to help cover the costs of one of their quintet’s pregnancy and imminent parenthood.
After watching countless heist movies and visiting one of their incarcerated mothers in prison (a neat cameo from Sean Young), they embark on an audacious robbery that incorporates their various perfectly honed cheerleader moves.
As a lightweight comedy that favors airheaded humor over any of the plot’s potentially intriguing dark themes, Sugar & Spice bombed at the box office, despite solid turns from Suvari, Shelton, and Melissa George as three of the movie’s central fivesome.
Writer Lona Williams certainly wasn’t happy with the finished results. Williams had previously earned rave reviews for her writing on the beauty pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous.
However, this time around she asked that her name be removed from Sugar & Spice, with the pseudonym Mandy Nelson was used in its place.
Whatever it Takes (2000)
James Franco made his big-screen bow with this formulaic high school tale, loosely based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac, which previously provided inspiration for Steve Martin’s Roxanne.
However, while audiences and critics alike lapped up Martin’s snoz-led version of theis familiar tale, it was a different story for Whatever It Takes.
As a flop both critically and commercially, the movie centers on Shane West’s high school geek Ryan, who hatches a deal with Franco’s popular jock Chris to help them both land the girls of their dreams.
While Ryan writes romantic emails and phone messages on Chris’ behalf for the intellectual Maggie (Marla Sokoloff), Chris teaches Ryan how to impress the most popular girl at school, Ashley (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) by becoming a bad boy.
Soon enough, however, Ryan realizes that he may have been going after the wrong girl all along.
As a formulaic effort riddled with clichés and one that borrows heavily from the likes of She’s All That (O’Keefe plays virtually the same role), Whatever It Takes is also notable for featuring the movie debut of Aaron Paul in a small role he’s unlikely to look back on with much fondness.
While Franco would recover to go on to bigger and better things, West continued to stumble, going on to star in the superhero dud The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen a few years later. This isn’t that bad.
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
Pitched somewhere between Rushmore and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Bartlett may not quite live up to either of those movies but it is still a clever and amusing enough tale of teen angst writ large.
It’s also the perfect showcase of the late Anton Yelchin’s considerable talents, with the then-teenage actor putting in a charismatic performance in the movie’s titular role. He plays Charlie, a troubled rich kid diagnosed with ADHD and adjusting to life at yet another new school.
He soon hits on a money-making scheme that sees him serve as a self-appointed psychiatrist to his fellow classmates, using the boys’ bathroom as a makeshift office.
Before long, he’s feigning physical and emotional issues during psychiatry sessions in order to supply his cohorts with an assortment of medications– all for a fee, of course.
A fun if slightly one-note premise is enhanced by a supporting cast that includes Kat Dennings as fellow school rebel Susan Gardner and Robert Downey Jr. as her father and school principal Nathan Gardner.
Downey Jr. and Yelchin feature in some of the movie’s best scenes, with their fiery exchanges raising Charlie Bartlett above the level of other teen dramas.
Throw in the ever-reliable Hope Davis as Charlie’s long-suffering, heavily-medicated mother, Marilyn, and you have an indie teen effort well worth watching– at least once.
The New Guy (2002)
Having made his name with the teen comedy Road Trip in 2000, the instantly-recognizable DJ Qualls returned to familiar territory two years later with The New Guy.
Alas, just as Tom Green learned with Freddy Got Fingered, lighting doesn’t always strike twice. The New Guy may not be a titanic turkey on a par with Green’s effort, but it’s a messy, incoherent, affair that wastes its talent and a potentially intriguing premise.
Qualls plays high school nerd Dizzy Harrison, who suffers a string of public humiliations that eventually end with him in jail.
While behind bars, he strikes up a conversation with Eddie Griffin’s Luther and they hatch a plan to help Dizzy reinvent himself. He gets himself expelled from school and undergoes a makeover.
Upon arrival at his new school, Dizzy establishes himself as the alpha male by beating up the resident bully and gaining the attention of Elisha Dushku’s Danielle. He can’t escape his past life forever, though.
Based around a common enough fantasy among kids of a certain age, The New Guy is full of likable leads, including Zooey Deschanel as Dizzy’s band playing best friend Nora. However, something is amiss.
Directed by There’s Something About Mary writer Ed Decter from a script by David Kendall, who has written for the likes of Boy Meets World, The New Guy offers up an unusual mix of gross-out gags and sentimentality that never quite gels, but proves watchable enough.
It’s a boy girl thing (2006)
Elton John and husband David Furnish served as producers on this high school body swap comedy, which only received a limited theatrical release but is nevertheless a sweet tale.
As a fresh enough spin on a familiar classic, the plot sees neighbours and childhood friends-turned-high-school-foes Woody Deane (Kevin Zegers) and Nell Bedworth (Samaire Armstrong) swap bodies.
While Woody is a football star and jock, Nell is an introspective bookworm with little interest in sports. Therefore, the fact they have swapped bodies isn’t exactly ideal, though it does provide an opportunity for some form of commentary on gender politics.
Zeger, who has worked steadily in the years since on everything from Gossip Girl to Fear The Walking Dead, does a solid job but this is undoubtedly Armstrong’s movie. Serving as a vehicle-of-sorts for the actress, who was fresh from her breakout role as Anna Stern on teen favourite The O.C., she adds a little more emotional depth to proceedings.
In a movie light on belly laughs, Armstrong and Zegers do at least succeed in building genuine onscreen chemistry and, as with any body swap movie, it is always enjoyable to watch two actors attempting to play each other for comedic effect.
It’s A Boy Girl Thing won’t win any awards for originality, but it does deliver pretty much everything you would expect or want from a movie of this kind, even if it veers a little too close to schmaltz as time goes on.
Save The Last Dance (2001)
Aa an undoubted guilty pleasure, Save The Last Dance is the perfect fusion of Dirty Dancing and Flashdance, by way of Boyz n the Hood.
It stars Julia Stiles as a stiff, white, midwestern girl and ballet dancer Sara who moves to Chicago following a personal family tragedy. She struggles to fit in with her predominantly black schoolmates at first, though, especially in the local nightclubs where her dance moves draw ridicule.
Help is at hand, however, in the form of Sean Patrick Thomas’ Derek who not only teaches her how to dance (in the movie’s best scene) but also wins her heart.
Derek has got his own problems, though, as he attempts to shake off a semi-criminal past and bunch of friends with bad intentions. All this and, as the movie’s finale approaches, Sara must prepare to audition for a fancy ballet school.
Will she incorporate her newfound “urban” moves into her audition piece? Have a guess and try to remember this is 2001, not 2018.
As the movie that spawned countless rip-offs in the form of Step Off and its various sequels, Save The Last Dance is Stiles’ film, though Thomas is also a winning addition.
Scandal’s Kerry Washington also provides strong support as Derek’s sister and Sara’s new best friend, even if her role is a little underdeveloped.
Drawn in broad brush strokes, Save The Last Dance’s depiction of inner city life may be a little simplistic, but for pure escapist cinema, it’s a lot of fun.
Stick It (2006)
Aiming to do for gymnastics what Bring It On did for cheerleading, Stick It tells the story of Haley Graham (Miss Peregrym) a lawless teen forced to return to the sport she led some years previously.
As a gymnast of some considerable talent, Haley is enrolled in a program run by legendary coach Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges) where, along with an assembled bunch of high school misfits, she soon begins to live up to her potential.
Written and directed by Bring It On’s Jessica Bendinger, though the movie never quite reaches the same heights as her breakthrough effort, it still boasts a powerhouse performance from Peregrym in the central role.
Showing the kind of range that would eventually land her a starring role in the police procedural Rookie Blue, Peregrym is the glue that holds Stick It together.
Bridges, meanwhile, adds a little dramatic weight to the supporting cast, with his rebellious group of would-be gymnasts proving likable additions to proceedings too.
Well received by critics, by and large, and a moderate box office hit, Stick It has gone under the radar in the years since but is worth seeking out. It may ultimately be a sports drama but its one that touches on universal themes like teamwork, togetherness, and rebellion.
EuroTrip (2004)
As one of the more unusual teen efforts to emerge from the ’00s, EuroTrip starred Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Smallville’s Kristen Kreuk, and most notably, Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Michelle Trachtenberg.
It tells the story of Scott (Mechlowicz), a high school nerd who gets dumped by his girlfriend before deciding to head off to Europe to hook up with his female German pen pal Mieke, who he mistakenly believed to be a guy called Mike.
Scott and his pals are soon headed for Europe, where American Pie-style gags ensue. Featuring a bizarre cameo from footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones as the world’s least likely Manchester United fan (he’s from London), the movie’s most bizarre moment is reserved for Matt Damon.
According to a Reddit AMA with the actor, Damon went to college with the makers of EuroTrip and was asked to appear in the movie after they found out that he was also in Prague (Damon was filming The Brothers Grimm) while they there.
The result is a brief but brilliant appearance from Damon as Donny, the skinhead lead singer of a punk band. Early in the movie, Scott is not only dumped by his girlfriend Fiona (Kreuk), but also learns she has been unfaithful to him with Donny and that Donny has written a song about it.
The subsequent performance of “Scotty Doesn’t’ Know” may actually be the most memorable aspect of this otherwise by-the-numbers travel comedy.
Saved! (2004)
Saved! served as a semi-autobiographical labor of love for writer and director Brian Dannelly, who grew up in the kind of conservatively Christian setting depicted in the movie.
Inspired to write about his own school experiences in the wake of the Columbine High school Massacre, Dannelly collaborated with Michael Urban on the script for Saved! Growing up as the only gay kid in a devoutly religious setting, Dannelly knew the experience chronicled in the movie first hand.
Saved! centers on Jena Malone’s Mary, a devout Christian who has her faith tested when he boyfriend comes out as gay and she later discovers that she is pregnant.
Ostracised by the student body, she soon teams up with the rest of the school’s misfits to escape the shackles of their religious upbringing.
Addressing issues around religion, homophobia, teen pregnancy, and disability, Saved! was ahead of its time in tackling these concerns among teens. The movie was a clever satire that retains a sweet underlying message, and Dannelly would go on to work on the hit series Weeds to similar effect.
Possibly the most thought-provoking entry on this list, the trends and fashions present in the movie may have moved on but the themes remain as relevant as ever.
It also features some fine performances from the likes of Mandy Moore, then better known as a budding pop star, and Macaulay Culkin, who proves that he is more than just your average former child star.
First Daughter (2004)
With a simple enough premise – the daughter of the President goes to college – First Daughter actually began life as a script written by actor Jerry O’Connell in the late ’90s. O’Connell eventually sold the script to a studio for a six-figure sum and was even initially slated to star before the project was delayed and rewritten with a different star in mind.
Bring It On writer Jessica Bendringer was recruited to help with the rewrite, which saw Dawson’s Creek favorite and future Mrs. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes enlisted to star.
After four years of delays, filming finally began in 2003 with Forest Whitaker a surprise choice in the director’s chair and Michael Keaton recruited to play the role of President and father to Holmes’ Samantha MacKenzie.
Unfortunately, the resulting movie fared badly with the critics and further disappointed at the box office. It didn’t help that a rival film, entitled Chasing Liberty and featuring a near-identical plot with Mandy Moore in the lead role, had arrived that same year to similar disappointment.
Ultimately, the movie’s sweetly saccharine tone, which was part of an attempt by Whitaker to imbue the movie with a sense of fairy tale magic, made it an unappealing prospect to older audiences.
Keaton, meanwhile, is in full-blown autopilot alongside a cast featuring plenty of good-looking people but few standout performers.
New York Minute (2004)
The Olsen Twins’ money train ground to an almighty halt with New York Minute. As the twins’ first theatrical release since their 1995 effort It Takes Two, it would go on to be the last to feature both Mary-Kate and Ashley and the last to be released by their production company Dualstar Entertainment– and it’s not difficult to see why.
The twins play sisters with opposing personalities who team up to make their dreams come true in the Big Apple. Jane wants to secure a place on an overseas college program, while her sister Roxy wants to meet her favorite rock band.
Together, they will attempt to achieve both in the space of 24 supposedly “crazy” but strictly PG hours.
The movie was another critical failure and box office dud, and even the presence of Eugene Levy, playing essentially the same character he played in American Pie, and Full House co-star Bob Saget can’t save New York Minute from mediocrity.
It is still significant for bringing the curtain down on the Olsen Twins’ movie careers, following a run of 14 largely successful movies.
Ashley Olsen has not returned to the world of film since. That absence ultimately led to the twins turning down the chance to return for Netflix’s Full House revival, Fuller House, claiming that they had been away from acting for too long.
The Prince And Me (2004)
Having made her name as the fiercely independent Kat in 10 Things I Hate About You, Julia Stiles went against the grain with a fluffy bit of cinematic wish fulfillment.
Though it is worth watching in the wake of Meghan Markle’s romance and marriage to British Royal Prince Harry, The Prince And Me is an otherwise entirely predictable and somewhat plodding affair.
Stiles plays Paige, a feisty pre-med college student who strikes up a romance with a Danish pupil named Eddie (Luke Mably). She soon discovers that Eddie is, in fact, Crown Prince Edvard of Denmark and that she is now at the center of a media storm back in his Scandinavian homeland.
All of the usual obstacles soon emerge, though. Will Paige ever adjust to life in the limelight alongside Eddie? Will she be expected to give up her life and up sticks to live in a fancy palace in Denmark? Also, will Edvard’s stuck up parents ever accept her as a valued member of the family?
Have you seen any movie like this before?
As a bland but mildly diverting affair that’s light on laughs, The Prince And Me was clearly made with a certain audience in mind. They lapped it up too, with the movie spawning a further three straight-to-DVD sequels.
Stiles, sensibly, opted not to reprise her role, while Mably, sensibly, did.
Accepted (2006)
The early 2000s were kind to Justin Long. Not only was he busy starring in smash hits like Jeepers Creepers and Dodgeball, but he was also part of the popular dramedy Ed over on NBC.
All of this and he even managed to emerge from Britney Spears’ disastrous movie debut Crossroads relatively unscathed. Things got even better in 2006, when Long fronted his very own gross-out college comedy, Accepted.
Long plays a high school slacker who creates his own university on a rundown bit of property after being rejected by every college he applied for.
Coming off like a version of Animal House for millennials, Accepted may be a little formulaic in structure, but boasts plenty in the way of amusing gags. With many scenes almost entirely improvised, the comedy can prove a little hit and miss at times but Long makes for a charming and engaging lead.
There’s also room for Blake Lively as a love interest and Jonah Hill in his familiar role of geeky sidekick.
As a hark back to the kind of feel-good college comedies that were the norm back in the 1980s, Accepted even spawned its very own Bollywood remake.
Based on a script by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the movie’s two writers have since gone on to pen the recent big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed. See this movie before you see that one, though.
She’s The Man (2006)
She’s The Man was never going to win any awards for originality or razor-sharp writing, but as kid-friendly Amanda Bynes movies go, it’s more enjoyable than most.
It also delivers everything fans could have wanted: light laughs, female sass ,and a heartthrob love interest in Channing Tatum.
Loosely inspired by William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (hip Shakespeare updates were the norm of the era), She’s The Man is actually a remake of an almost identical but far raunchier ’80s comedy called Just One Of The Guys.
The plot centers on Viola (Bynes) who masquerades as her twin brother at school in order to play for the boys’ soccer team after the girls’ one gets shut down.
She soon strikes up a close friendship with teammate Duke (Tatum), resulting in some very confused feelings for the latter.
Bynes is likable enough in the lead role, while all the usual concerns of a gender-swap comedy are played out for laughs. She’s The Man keeps its younger audience in mind, though, resulting in a few cheap gags and an over-reliance on slapstick.
It’s fascinating to see Tatum in an early role.
The the message at the heart of the movie is a positive one that remains relevant today. This being a soccer film in the early 2000s, Vinne Jones also pops up with a cameo as the team’s tough-guy coach. Vinne got a lot of work back then.
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004)
Adapted from Dyan Sheldon’s novel of the same name, Hilary Duff was the original choice to star in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen before dropping out to pursue other projects.
Lindsay Lohan, who had just starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the remake of Freaky Friday, was cast in her place. Coming during Lohan’s golden patch of movies with Disney, this film finds the teen star at her energetic best in a role that has more in common with Mean Girls than most fans probably realize.
Lohan plays Mary Elizabeth “Lola” Steppe, a 15-year-old with dreams of making it as a Broadway star. Those dreams are derailed, however, when he family ups sticks and moves from the busy city to the suburbs.
Suddenly, Lola is having to deal with a new school, as well as cute classmate Sam (Eli Marienthal), the resident high school bully, and popular cheerleader type Carla Santini (Megan Fox).
Aimed squarely at teenage girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen may be an entirely lightweight affair, but it’s the perfect showcase of what made Lohan a star worth watching in the first place and also gives fans an early glimpse of Fox in one of her first movie roles.
It’s far from perfect, but it makes for the perfect viewing accompaniment to Mean Girls.
Sky High (2005)
This colorful superhero comedy about an airborne school designed for teenagers with superpowers actually started life as a script penned by screenwriter Paul Hernandez in the late ’90s. It took the involvement of Disney to get the project off the ground.
They recruited Kim Possible creators Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley to polish the script. Several comedians were also recruited in supporting roles with Dave Foley, Kevin Heffernan, and Kevin McDonald all signing on to provide some extra laughs.
Mike Mitchell, who had worked on a mixed bag of productions that included Shrek 2 and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, also landed the gig as director, further adding to the movie’s unique mix of child-friendly plotting and the occasional adult-orientated gag for the parents.
It follows Michael Angarano as William Stronghold, the son of legendary superheroes the Commander and Jetstream, as he tries to strike a balance between a normal life and his superpower-led tendencies.
Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston have a blast as William’s mad-cap parents, injecting a sense of fun into proceedings while there’s also an early appearance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who shines as the strong-willed Gwen Grayson aka Royal Pain.
Coming off like a PG-friendly Kick-Ass, minus the gore and the swearing, Sky High is a colorful, family-friendly teen comedy with plenty in the way of broad appeal.
The Hot Chick (2002)
Rob Schneider earned a Razzie nomination for the Worst Actor of the Decade for this gender/body-swap comedy – but in all fairness to the Saturday Night Live legend, he was clearly playing it for laughs rather than award nominations.
Coming midway through Schneider’s late ’90s/early ’00s run of feature films, The Hot Chick doesn’t quite hit the same comedic high points of movies like Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo but has aged better than later efforts like The Benchwarmers and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.
Schneider plays his familiar role as a middle-aged slacker who ends up swapping bodies with a stuck-up high school girl. This standard formula is given a shot in the arm, however, by the casting of Rachel McAdams as the aforementioned high schooler.
Throw in the ever-reliable Anna Faris as one of her best friends and you have a movie that, while vulgar and juvenile in places, is often too easily dismissed as just another Schneider comedy vehicle.
The Hot Chick certainly is that with the premise and overall feel of the movie strangely reminiscent of the kinds of comedies Rodney Dangerfield was making back in the ’80s, but Farris and McAdams do at least give proceedings more of a feminist feel, on some level at least.
McAdams is excellent at playing Schneider too, even if his efforts weren’t so well received.
Orange County (2002)
Very much an example of two sons attempting to escape from the shadows of their far more famous fathers, Orange County stars Colin “Son of Tom” Hanks and is directed by Lawrence Kasdan’s own offspring, Jake.
That’s not to take away from the movie itself, though, which is a fun, life-affirming teen comedy which favors witty lines over-elaborate set pieces.
Hanks plays Shaun, a laid-back surfer and average student who is shaken out of his stupor by the sudden passing of a friend, deciding to become a writer. He sets his mind on attending Stanford University and appears on course to do that until a mix up involving his academic transcript.
Shaun is undeterred, though, and enlists the help of his stoner brother Lance (Jack Black) to right that particular wrong.
Mike White, who penned the script, and had previously written for Freaks & Geeks and Dawson’s Creek, lived next door to Jack Black around the time he was working on Orange County and actually wrote the part of Lance with him in mind.
It is a big-budget MTV movie, and Hanks and Kasdan’s connections may have helped the movie land some pretty big stars in supporting roles with highlights including Lily Tomlin as Shaun’s school guidance counselor and Harold Ramis as the Stanford admissions director.
John Lithgow and Catherine O’Hara also feature prominently as Shaun’s, dysfunctional, divorced parents, adding some dramatic weight to a surprisingly intelligent teen affair.
Crazy/Beautiful (2001)
This stripped-back indie drama doubles down on the gritty emotional stuff but leaves little room for anything else in between. However, if sensitively bleak dramas about star-crossed lovers from the wrong sides of the tracks are your sort of thing then, wow, you’re in luck with Strange/Beautiful.
Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez take center stage as the movie’s key romantic pair, both of whom adhere to a certain socio-economic stereotype.
She’s the affluent, out-of-control daughter of a congressman, who is going off the rails following the passing of her mother. He’s the working-class Mexican-American trying to make a better life for himself by becoming a Navy pilot.
Together, they will spend close to two hours going through any number of personal dramas, interspersed with scenes of the two cavort in cars, in beds, and occasionally outdoors.
Hernandez and Dunst do deserve some credit for imbuing these predictable events with some emotional realism, as the two do a decent enough job with the source material.
However, there are only so many twists and turns that can feature in a high school drama about a poor Latino man who falls for the bad girl from the right side of town and this movie simply hasn’t got the nerve to delve into any potentially intriguing dark territory.
Director John Stockwell does a good job behind the camera, though, injecting a gritty realism and occasional dream-like quality into Crazy/Beautiful that adds to the movie’s intriguing aura.
