LIKE CRAZY

High-spirited Beatrice lives in a residential psychiatric facility due to her grandiose (and delusional) perceptions of reality. Her fiery, outsized personality contrasts with that of moody and medicated new patient Donatella, who’s prone to depression and has a violent secret in her past. Still, the women form an unlikely alliance after they impulsively escape the facility while working a day job at a plant nursery. This friendship only strengthens and deepens as they commit petty crimes to survive while on the lam and try to reckon with their complex family histories and personal demons. LIKE CRAZY casts no judgment on Beatrice and Donatella’s mental health challenges. In fact, the film is sympathetic to each woman’s troubled situation, which ensures that Donatella’s tumultuous relationship with her absent son emerges as the film’s most touching and wrenching plot element. In the end, LIKE CRAZY shows that surface truths and actions can be deceiving, and even the most fractured lives can start to heal if given a second chance. (In Italian with subtitles) —A.Z.