Half Nelson

I don't know what these other people are smoking (inside joke), but clearly they are not thinking straight. This movie drags on and on and on and on and.... The dialogue is sparse, and rather poorly conceived. The bright light is the little black girl who delivers a truly gritty performance. Gosling is totally wasted, and appears perplexed throughout the film. I just don't get what all the fuss is about this movie. Much ado about nothing. I'm sick to death of films that preach to their audience about the effects of the Vietnam war, Republican politics, etc. Weak people fail, and the central character in this film is just that...weak.

OK, we all know that this is about an idealistic progressive high school teacher who is trying to hide his street drug addiction from students, coworkers, and family, and that one girl finds out his secret and befriends him. That's the summary given about this movie. I just walked in the door from seeing this thing, and I cannot tell you one more thing than that. It's about a teacher who does drugs and hangs out with a young inner-city girl. Well, what happens in the movie, though? He just keeps doing drugs, teaching, and hanging out with this girl. That's it. Nothing else happens. Now before you accuse me of requiring an off-the-shelf plot in order to appreciate a movie (not that any lovers of this fare would be up to that observation), I am not a fan of plot-heavy films. I prefer strong and evocative images, emotions, and moments, to plot or story. BUT, I also need something to HAPPEN in a movie, and nothing does in this one. This movie is supposed to get by on the cuteness of the main character, and nothing more. Heck, if you want a struggling loner who's all screwed up, see Taxi Driver. Now there's a movie, and I'm not even a fan of De Niro. Forget the violence, just appreciate the scenes where he reaches out to the Peter Boyle character, or his journal entry voice overs. Now, if you read the critics, both professional and amateur, it's the absolute second coming of cinema. Nothing has ever been made that comes close to this movie. Ryan Gosling's acting is so...so...well riveting! I mean, like, he was so believable! And it makes you think about drugs, and people who do drugs and don't want others to find out! Apparently Gosling, as the main character, 's acting was superb. I guess it comes down to taste. To me, you could go to any Starbucks and find someone to shuffle around like a metrosexual zombie as did Gosling in this flick. He's really a waif-metrosexual hybrid. That must be what does it for all those who are wheezing over this movie. Double-whammy, as it were. Oh, and he's cool because he has a bunch of vinyl records. For my money, a better movie about a guy with vinyl is Ghost World, with Steve Buscemi. Two major bright spots in this movie are Shareeka Epps, as his adolescent confidant, and Anthony Mackie as the drug dealer who looks out for Epps. Epps has this sternness about her that takes control of every conversation she is in. It works well in this context. Mackie's performance is very crisp and invigorating. You'll find yourself looking forward to seeing him toward the end of this movie, if you free yourself from the spell of amazement you experience from the main character, that is. This is another Blair Witch Project. It totally hit the sweet spot of the public in the right way at the right time, without having any substance or merit. So, my hat is off to these film makers.

HALF NELSON (2006) **** Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Tina Holmes, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders. Gosling gives one of the year's best performances and an Oscar worthy turn as a Brooklyn high school history teacher whose unorthodox teaching methods and charming personality are belied by his addiction to crack that is discovered by one of his students (newcomer Epps, in an amazingly natural debut and should also be nominated as Best Supporting Actress). Instead of a melodramatic life-lesson awkward approach the film focuses on the unlikely friendship bonding between the two not-so- dissimilar characters who each are fumbling to some sort of redemption. Novice filmmaker Ryan Fleck and his co-screen writing significant other Anna Boden craft a well-thought and well-fleshed-out character study into the minds of an addict and the results of his actions with well-timed sequences that flow fluidly from one set-piece to the next effortlessly with sprinkles of humor and a stand-out supporting turn by Mackie as a neighborhood pusher friend of Epps' that easily could've been a stereotype but is nicely sorted out into a complex narrative device. One of the year's best films.

This was not a terribly good movie. It had all the pretense and PC dogma to make all the right people swoon over it, but in reality it was a frivolous and utterly pointless exercise in film-making. The whole thing comes off like a checklist for political correctness. 1. Troubled inner-city minorities? Check. 2. Flawed but caring liberal white lead? Check. 3. Drug-dealing black father figure with a heart? Check. 4. Boilerplate social commentary on the inequity of American society? Check. The people who thought this was some brilliant piece of art are simply showing off their sheep mentality. No impartial observer could possibly think this was any more than boring tripe. I do have to say that the acting was excellent, though. Too bad the cast didn't have better material to work with.

i just saw this movie this past weekend, and i feel like i saw a masterpiece. Indie films are often overlooked due to the lack of money they have for advertising and publicity, but this one was as good as any Hollywood movie. the acting is superb; the two stars were Shareeka and Ryan gosling. i never knew Ryan gosling could play such a difficult role. i was surprised by how much of the movie is carried out with long silences and head shots. the movie is about its content not its budget or how many things blow up. it is a character driven story where you get to know two very different yet similar people.The relationship that develops through out the movie is touching and inspiring. although this is a more serious movie, it definitely has some hilarious moments( in my opinion). I hope anyone who has heard about this movie doesn't hesitate to see it , because..... well for the reasons i said above .

Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps were just plain awesome in this film by Ryan Fleck. Gosling was impressive as an addict that was trying to hold on and teach. You could see the constant struggle as he fought giving up. The back and forth with Epps was quietly enchanting. Both certainly showed great acting talent in this film. No loud action and prurient subject matter, just a sweet film showing a man's struggle and a girl's growing up realizing that drugs cripple. This film is hard to reduce to simple formulas. It transcends any mold and entertains in a reflective manner.

Like The New World last year, this movie was the biggest let down of the year. Here's why: First of all, the premise was intriguing, and I wanted to see this movie really badly. While watching it, I kept saying that it would get better soon, that the premise was still building. But as the clock ticked, nothing was happening. It's about a guy who's a teacher that snorts as well, and what he does. However, he just hangs around, and doesn't do anything. At the end a bit of a resolution happens, but it isn't really anything. While Shareeka Epps, the young actress in the film, looks like she has potential, she is given few lines and all she does is WATCH her teacher get worse and ask him to stop futilely. Finally it ended and I knew I didn't enjoy. Then it took me a second: what is the title about? Nobody is named Nelson, nobody gets put in a Half Nelson, and it seems off. People claim it is a metaphor for the character's situation, which in my opinion makes no sense because all his problems are self inflicted. That doesn't make sense. Skip this one, it's a let down, and a movie that didn't need to be made.

All the hype surrounding this film has yet again come from the USA. All the 10/10 reviews on this site are from Americans. What is wrong with you people? How could ANYONE find this entertainment? America, STOP! making these dreadful, pointless, boring, pretentious films. There must be one American person who thought this film was a joke? I honestly thought it was a pi**-take? In fact Iam pretty sure it was. The characters were pathetic and the relationships totally unrealistic. Are we to believe a junkie could hold a job down as a teacher. Awful camera work (no its not cool and was not cool 5 years ago). Acting? What acting? Give me a break.

I have been reading many reviews about this film for weeks so I was anxious to see it. I was hoping for something new. There seems to be a very prominent but hard to overlook attraction by young, talented, new white filmmakers taking up the subjects of urban black and Latino lives as fodder for either liberal expression, societal outrage or possible fetishism. From "Maria Full of Grace", "GirlsTown", "Everyday People" (HBO), "Quinceanera" now "Half Nelson", we have story lines looking at underprivileged black and Latino folk through a prism that seems to be very similar. In these stories there is a little sadness, some anthropological observation, a fair amount of non judgmental characterizations and realism but as independent and daring as these films claimed to be, they are no better than watching "Dangerous Minds", a studio film of a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at you. Most black filmmakers seem to be preoccupied these days with the three p's-Tyler Perry, Tyrese and taking the money so it's hard to complain when other filmmakers find the stories of black and Latino culture such a rich place to be. So here comes "Half Nelson" as the latest in this stream. I really wanted to like this one but it falls into the same unfortunate traps as the others. I'm watching this film and seeing the absent of any black adult with any speaking part with a positive image for this young girl to benefit from. Ryan Gosling is a gifted and natural artist and Epps is quite good and real but the choices the writer and director make are choices that show where they are coming from. Dan brings in the light because the lives of the kids in his class are in the dark. With Epps' mom working so much are we to believe Epps is not loved? Hard to know. Her father is not around but apparently without a voice or point of view and dogged by her mother. Her brother is in prison but he doesn't seem to be evolved enough to realize that he must do differently when he gets out. And then there's Mackie's character, a good guy but he's selling product in the community. The man's a businessman but not quite the positive role model you'd like to have any kid look up to. The polyglot nature of our world gives us all configurations of relationships in how people find family, opportunity and friendship but I never found what Dan is going through in his addiction particularly profound or revealing. Sure he's high half the time, sure he's aimless and passionate like a lot of aimless and educated young white and black folk who don't know what to do and how to affect change in this world but when you make a movie and lay your hero in a world he knows little about, give the world a little more credit. Switch the situation around. take out the drugs and go back thirty years and you have "To Sir with Love". The only difference, Poitier's character had a chip on his shoulder not a monkey on his back and the kids he was dealing with and Lulu's character particularly didn't want to take that chip off, she wanted to learn from him. I don't know what this 13 year old learns from Dan. Maybe she's learned how to take care of a guy who needs someone to take care of him, which really sets her up for an unfortunate job title in her future. We don't know what she dreams about for her future. We have no idea. She sure has not learned much about the civil rights movement in what is shown in the film. He is trying to impress on the kids to expand their minds in a semi Socratic educational style but these kids are sponges and a point of view from a teacher is not actually teaching. I want to know the filmmaker's point in making this film. I'm really curious. That's my two cents.

As a NYC public school teacher and a black woman, I know not where to begin with the faults of this film. It is yet another portrayal of the great white emancipator who sacrifices himself to teach the poor colored children of the inner city. He disregards the civil rights curriculum provided him by a black principal in favor of his own agenda. In each of the teaching scenes, he is presented as the fountain of knowledge, giving the children all they need to know about the world. He discusses change with them, nay, revolution, but the students themselves are never depicted as empowered. With exception to Shareeka Epps, who is probably changed for the worse, the children are pawns in his power play to "change the world." This brings me to the relationship between Gosling and Epps. She has but one positive black adult in her life (her, of course, overworked and underpaid single-parent mother) and yet she is most affected by a junkie, white male teacher, who adopts a "black-cent" and coaches girls' basketball. She, in essence, becomes his mammy, caring for him and nursing him even after he calls her -- a 13-yr. old -- a "bitch" and grinds on her during a school dance. The "mammy" itself makes an appearance in her drug-dealer, pseudo-big brother's home and its significance is never explained to her, perhaps because the writers themselves don't understand it. Or maybe they do, and "Half-Nelson" is their ode to it. All in all, this film perpetuates the theory that liberal white teachers are doing children of color favors by "sacrificing their ideals" (as stated in the "Story" section of the official website) to teach in inner-city schools. It is riddled with inaccuracies about teaching in NYC, i.e. his being alone in a school; teachers are NEVER left alone in schools, particularly after school events. It also perpetuates the theory that inner-city children are surrounded by exclusively negative influences, from family members to neighbors, and are waiting for someone to step in and rescue them from themselves. Critics who believe this film is inspirational need to examine themselves and what they really think about their relationships with and responsibilities to blacks.