What does it mean to be crazy? And what does it cost to be good?

Writer/director/star Rosa Salazar’s charming comedy takes a sideways look at those questions, as well as the universal struggles of learning to be a proper grownup and finding your way in the world.

Salazar (who’s appeared in American Horror Story and had film roles in the Divergent and Maze Runner franchises) plays herself as kooky, sardonic, but big-hearted Rosa. And you’re rooting for her all the way as she tries to squeeze a huge dining table into her tiny LA apartment, deploys sarcasm to devastating effect to survive brunch with her strait-laced boyfriend’s irritating hipster friends (“This wallpaper is very chill.” “It’s the best.”) and carries a run-over coyote to an animal hospital.

Rosa is cynical but childish, passionate yet playful – while also prone to impulsive decisions like cleaning up rubbish from under a bridge (making her late for the aforementioned brunch). She unapologetically does not fit in with everybody else’s vision of normal and conventional, rolling her eyes at inane conversations about the new face of Dior and baulking at a $16 avocado toast.

On top of that Rosa discovers that it can actually be difficult to be good, to make the world a kinder and better place. Her impromptu litter pick brings only exasperation from her boyfriend and she has to deal with an idiotic driver who wants to put the coyote he’s hit in a clearly too-small carrier bag (“It’s my girlfriend’s car!”).

Salazar writes and directs with a naturalistic, simple style – capturing a sun-drenched but real-life Los Angeles quite apart from the Hollywood glamour. 2017 Sundance Festival short Good Crazy is a funny, sweet and uplifting watch that puts a smile on your face.

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INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: Rosa Salazar

WRITER: Rosa Salazar

CAST: Rosa Salazar, Matt Chute, Sara Ramos, Turen Robinson

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Adrian Correia

EDITOR: Nate Gross

SYNOPSIS: A complex chick deals with a vanilla beau, a bad brunch and a dead coyote all in a Los Angeles day. There’s batshit crazy and then there’s good crazy… she fits somewhere in between.