Crazy in Alabama

{{Infobox film

| name = Crazy in Alabama

| image = Crazy in alabama poster.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Antonio Banderas

| writer = Mark Childress

| based_on = {{based on|Crazy in Alabama|Mark Childress}}

| starring = {{plainlist|

| producer = Debra Hill

| music = Mark Snow

| cinematography = Julio Macat

| editing = Robert C. Jones

| studio = Columbia Pictures
Green Moon Productions

| distributor = Sony Pictures Releasing

| released = {{Film date|1999|09|09|Venice|1999|10|22|United States}}

| runtime = 111 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $15 million

| gross = $2 million

}}

Crazy in Alabama is a 1999 American crime film directed by Antonio Banderas in his directorial debut and written by Mark Childress based on his novel. The film follows an abused housewife (Melanie Griffith), whose nephew (Lucas Black) identifies a corrupt sheriff (Meat Loaf) as a murderer. It marked Dakota Johnson's film debut.

Plot

In 1965 Alabama, Peter Joseph "Peejoe" Bullis is an orphan living in a small town during the Civil Rights Movement. His eccentric aunt, Lucille Vinson, kills her husband Chester with poison, after suffering years of domestic violence. She decapitates him and keeps his severed head, while planning to become a television actress in Hollywood. In New Orleans, Lucille buys a black hat box to store the head. When a bartender on Bourbon Street insults her, she threatens him with a revolver, before stealing the car and money. Meanwhile, Peejoe's uncle and Lucille's brother, Dove, a local funeral director, is notified of the incident. Lucille becomes paranoid, knowing Chester's ghost is haunting her.

Meanwhile, Peejoe discovers a group of black students, entering the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool and protesting. The town sheriff, John Doggett, inadvertently kills a young black boy, Taylor Jackson, by pulling him off the fence he is climbing and making him hit his head on the floor. Peejoe witnesses this and tells John to "be silent". While mowing the lawn, Peejoe is struck in the eye with a rock. The townspeople circulate a false story that he was shot in retaliation about Taylor. Peejoe and his brother, Wiley, support the black townspeople to honor Taylor. However, they are caught by the police and white pro-Confederates.

After playing roulette, Lucille subsequently spends $32,000 in order to travel from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. She receives the stage name Carolyn Clay and takes a minor role on Bewitched. Peejoe and Wiley attend a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., and Peejoe's racist aunt, Earline, is infuriated over the publicity involving the family. That night, they discover Lucille appearing on television. At Hollywood Hills, hostess Joan Blake discovers the head inside the box. Lucille and Norman flee to San Francisco, and try to discard the head off the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the two policemen discover this and stop Lucille from attempting suicide. She is arrested and escorted back to Alabama for the trial, where she is met by a media circus. In prison, she meets Taylor's father, Nehemiah. After being convicted of first-degree murder, Lucille is about to stay in prison for twenty years, but the sentence is suspended after she earns the judge's sympathy, after testifying to the abuse. She is put on a five-year probation with the condition that she seek psychiatric help. Lucille, her children, and all her friends leave the courtroom, while John (through Peejoe's testimony) gets arrested.

Cast

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

Melanie Griffith as Lucille Vinson
David Morse as Dove Bullis
Lucas Black as Peter Joseph Bullis
David Speck as Wiley Bullis
Cathy Moriarty as Earlene Bullis
Meat Loaf as Sheriff John Doggett
Rod Steiger as Judge Louis Mead
Richard Schiff as Norman
John Beasley as Nehemiah Jackson
Louis Miller as Taylor Jackson
Robert Wagner as Harry Hall
Noah Emmerich as Sheriff Raymond
Sandra Seacat as Meemaw
Paul Ben-Victor as D.A. Mackie
Brad Beyer as Jack
Fannie Flagg as Sally
Elizabeth Perkins as Joan Blake
Linda Hart as Madelyn
Michael Arata as Look Reporter
Paul Mazursky as Walter Schwegmann
Holmes Osborne as Attorney Larry Russell
Tony Amendola as Casino Boss
Carl Le Blanc III as David Jackson
Madison Mason as Alexander Powell
Randal Kleiser as Bob
Dakota Johnson as Sondra
Kirk Fox as Patrolman
Stella Banderas as Marilyn

}}

Production

The film was shot in Houma, Louisiana, Schriever, Chackbay, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Reception

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, scoring a 30% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 56 reviews, with the site's consensus stating: "Melanie Griffith gets kudos for her performance, but the movie just doesn't seem to come together."{{cite web|title=Crazy in Alabama (1999)|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/crazy_in_alabama|website=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=December 1, 2012}} The film had a score of 46 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 27 reviews.{{cite web|title=Crazy in Alabama|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/crazy-in-alabama|website=Metacritic|access-date=December 1, 2012}}

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "an ungainly fit of three stories that have no business being shoehorned into the same movie," awarding it two out of four stars.{{cite web|work=Chicago Sun-Times|title=Crazy in Alabama Review|author=Ebert, Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crazy-in-alabama-1999|date=October 22, 1999|access-date=March 9, 2018}} {{rating|2|4}} Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "takes an antic tone. It presents Melanie Griffith as the kind of fanciful creature who looks flirty even on her Wanted poster, and whose escapades en route to Hollywood have a dizzy spin."{{cite news|work=The New York Times|author=Maslin, Janet|author-link=Janet Maslin|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/102299crazy-film-review.html|title='Crazy in Alabama': Freedom Fighting in Dixie|date=October 22, 1999|access-date=March 9, 2018}} Paula Nechak of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called the film "funny, eccentric, and touchingly just, combining a unique interpretation of the time with an offbeat sense of humor."{{cite news|work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|author=Nechak, Paula|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n1VWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wOsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4218,8523543&dq=&hl=en|via=Google News|publisher=Eugene Register-Guard|location=Seattle, Washington|page=36|title=Banderas' fresh take on Old South}} {{rating|3}}

Griffith was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for the film, but lost it to Heather Donahue for The Blair Witch Project.{{cite web|title=1999 Razzie Nominees and "Winners"|url=http://www.razzies.com/forum/1999-razzie-nominees-and-winners_topic5534.html|publisher=Razzies.com|access-date=December 1, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206081327/http://www.razzies.com/forum/1999-razzie-nominees-and-winners_topic5534.html|archive-date=December 6, 2012|url-status=dead}} However, her performance for the film and Another Day in Paradise earned her the Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress. Lucas Black was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film and YoungStar Award for Best Young Actor/Performance in a Motion Picture Drama. Banderas won the 2000 ALMA Award for Outstanding Director of a Feature Film{{cite news|last=Kim|first=Ellen A|title=2000 ALMA Awards|url=http://www.hollywood.com/feature/2000_ALMA_Awards/770321|work=Hollywood.com|access-date=December 1, 2012|date=April 16, 2000}} and the European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema. He was nominated for a Golden Lion Award.