But before we get to that review. I just wanted to say something quick. I hoped to review this film this week and ran out of time. No need though. We have a solid review from James Rocchi that we can reprint and you can read below. So the point of this? Not much. I would go a little higher on the grade, B+ for sure, but James touches upon everything quite well (especially a certain faction of people that could be too ready to dismiss the picture). I suppose I just feel a little bit more passionate about this film. There’s a reason Paramount scooped this up at Sundance for a pretty little penny—when was the last time that studio acquired something instead of just developing stuff in house? And there’s a reason the film won the Grand Jury Prize and its terrific lead Felicity Jones took a Special Jury prize (and over Elizabeth Olsen, no less, who was earning raves for her performance in “Martha Marcy May Marlene”). And I suspect that James grade is such because, as he says, the film doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and you have seen this story before. But based on its burning-brightly convictions and its execution, “Like Crazy,” is an A-grade passion play that transports you right back to those early days of 20-something love when you did make foolish, irrational decisions—because you really didn’t know better (and or you just felt something so damn deeply, you didn’t care). It’s honestly observed, the soundtrack is killer (especially Dustin O’Halloran‘s piano instrumentals which I had thought was score specfically written for the film), the performances and (often the unspoken moments) are deeply affecting and it’s just an accurate depiction of that woozy, punch-drunk feeling you’ve felt maybe once or twice in your life that has simply knocked you off your feet. This is a long-winded way of the editor-in-chief of this site saying: I strongly encourage you to see this film. It’s not perfect, but as Sloan tried to articulate about passion over imperfections (and Canadian Rocchi might agree): “the point is not the grammar, it’s the feeling.”
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There is nothing wrong with a familiar tale, as long as that tale is well told. So it is with “Like Crazy,” director Drake Doremus’ chronicle of young love between Jacob (Anton Yelchin), a young design student and Anna (Felicity Jones), a journalism student from Britain. Jacob and Anna meet in University; she pursues him. Dates become a relationship; a relationship becomes a challenge; that challenge becomes….an obsession? A necessity? Many romantic dramas revolve around the principle that love conquers all; when “Like Crazy” excels, it is because Doremus and his actors know, and convey, how that conquest will not necessarily be particularly kind or easy.
( for more on this article http://blogs.indiewire.com )
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