Cool and the Crazy

Did You Know?

• Variety reviewer Todd Everett noted Bakshi's hyperdrive visual sense and use of odd angles.
• The closing sequences present strong violence without any blood shown onscreen.

Plot

High school sweethearts Michael and Roslyn marry at age 18 during the 1950s. Their relationship sours after Roslyn becomes pregnant at 19, as bills accumulate and they grow apart. Roslyn spends her time caring for their child and with her best friend Joannie, who is cheating on her husband Bobby with a man named Frankie. Roslyn meets Joey, a married bad boy, and begins an affair with him. Michael initially suspects nothing, but when the women stay out later each night, he realizes they are both having affairs. Michael has an affair with his co-worker Lorraine, who is involved in Beat and jazz scenes, but backs out after learning he is not her only lover. Lorraine eventually leaves for New York City. Roslyn tries to end her affair with Joey, but he refuses. Violence escalates when Joey kidnaps Roslyn; Michael retrieves her, and the couple separates, with Michael hitting the road.

Cast

Jared Leto is Michael, a husband and father stuck in a marriage where he feels his wife is shutting him out. Alicia Silverstone plays Roslyn, who is lonely at home until she meets Joey and discovers a more exciting life and sex. Jennifer Blanc is Joannie, Roslyn’s friend who has an affair first. Matthew Flint plays Joey, Roslyn’s secret lover. Bradford Tatum is Frankie, Joannie’s miserable husband. Christine Harnos plays Lorraine, Michael’s affair partner at work. The cast also includes Richard Singer, Tuesday Knight, Christian Frizzell, and John Hawkes as “Crazy.”

Production

Ralph Bakshi began developing Cool and the Crazy in the late 1960s under the title If I Catch Her, I'll Kill Her. United Artists and Paramount Pictures each paid Bakshi to develop the film in the 1970s but declined to produce it, as did studios he approached in the 1980s. Bakshi said they believed no one would admit women cheat on their husbands, calling it 'too hot.' In 1993, producer Lou Arkoff asked Bakshi to write and direct a low-budget feature for Showtime's Rebel Highway series. Bakshi revisited his screenplay for the third time, retitling it Cool and the Crazy after a 1958 exploitation film by American International Pictures, though the plots are unrelated.