This Los Angeles-set indie is yet another self-regarding elegy for doomed masculinity which expects us to sympathise with a pathetic, misogynistic creep as he goes about his daily routine. Lukas Haas is Zach, an independently wealthy hipster who has screwed his way through half of LA’s female population. But he’s stuck on Rebecca (Madeline Zima), the Crazy Eyes of the title, who loves to party with Zach but won’t let him in her pants.
What follows is 90 minutes of angst and alcoholism, as Zach’s sexual frustration drives him ever deeper into despair. Now, it’s clear that writer-director Adam Sherman doesn’t expect us to like Zach; indeed, the film goes out of its way to point out his faults. But Sherman does, it seems, want us to try and understand him – his pain, his emptiness, his sorrow – and frankly, it’s not worth the effort. There’s not a moment in ‘Crazy Eyes’ which feels false or unbelievable: Sherman has said in interviews that the film was based on his own and friends’ experiences. But maybe next time he could just see a shrink, rather than inflicting his emotional agonies on the rest of us?