The Poetics of the Self in C.R.A.Z.Y.

Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) is easily recognizable as a coming-out film, in which a young man, Zach Beaulieu, comes to recognize and accept his sexual orientation. However, the means by which this film creates and presents its main character are more sophisticated than what one finds in the typical coming-out film. Drawing upon both Sartrean phenomenology and linguistic studies of narration, this article will explore C.R.A.Z.Y.'s poetics of the self. In turn, the article will show how C.R.A.Z.Y. raises larger questions about both same-sex attraction and the nature of the self.