C.R.A.Z.Y. review

Zac (Marc-André Grondin) may or may not be gay. He's not sure, but everyone around him, from his dad (Michel Côté) to his four brothers, seems to have decided that he is. And, boy, are they unhappy about it...

You've got to give Jean-Marc Vallée's French-Canadian flick an award for sheer balls. Spanning 20-odd years from 1960 to the early '80s, it's a Wonder Years-style coming-of-age movie whose main influence from the opening voiceover onwards ("As long as I can remember, I've always hated Christmas") is clearly GoodFellas.

Scorsese would warm to the visual trickery and the indulgently confident use of contemporary music. What he'd be less keen on is the meandering narrative. We dawdle in the early sections of Zac's life, then cut to a finish as if Vallée suddenly ran out of film. H.A.Z.Y. would have been a better title.