Movies You Should Netflix

Half Nelson
Star-making performances don’t come along every day. It’s not often that you watch a film just knowing with certainty that you’re watching an actor become truly great before your very eyes, but that’s exactly what happens as you watch Ryan Gosling (The Believer) in Half Nelson. His portrayal of Dan Dunne, a crack addicted middle school teacher in Brooklyn, is astonishing. The film follows Dan, a gifted teacher who has an obvious rapport with his students, particularly Drey (Sharika Epps), a young girl who plays on the basketball team that Dan coaches. After an unsettling run-in with an ex-girlfriend following a game, Dan retreats to the decaying girls’ locker room (which he assumes is empty) to get high, only to have Drey discover him in his altered state. This incident serves as the starting point for the deepening of Dan and Drey’s delicate relationship – because of an absent father and an incarcerated older brother, she is searching for a male role model and seemingly chooses Dan to be that figure in her life. Drey can identify with Dan as they’re both painfully alone, which is partly what leads her to also seek out the guidance of Frank (Anthony Mackie, She Hate Me), a drug dealer who her brother is sitting in jail to protect. Frank feels partially responsible for Drey’s situation so he takes her under his wing even though he seems to have ulterior business-related motives, which does not sit well with Dan. First-time director Ryan Fleck structures Half Nelson to show Dan and Frank as opposing forces vying for control of Drey, paralleling the lesson on opposites that Dan teaches his students. A lesser film would have made one a clear-cut hero and the other an obvious villain, but it becomes clear that each have their flaws as well as their strengths. Gosling in particular rises to the challenge of playing such a complex character as he evokes the quiet intensity of a young Robert De Niro. It’s impossible to look anywhere else when he’s onscreen because you’re riveted wondering where he’s going to go next. Gosling subtly plays Dan as someone who is in control for the most part when he’s around his students (and watching Drey in particular gives him purpose), but ultimately he lets his demons get the better of him, leading to a heartbreaking scene in a ratty motel room late in the film. Fleck deserves note for shooting the film in an almost documentarian style that adds to the gritty realism of the subject matter. He also peppers the soundtrack with the appropriately chaotic sounds of Canadian band Broken Social Scene, but this film first and foremost belongs to Gosling. That a performance of this caliber comes from a former member of the Mickey Mouse Club boggles the mind. Mark my words -- we're going to look back on Half Nelson twenty years from now as the moment that made Ryan Gosling.

Dirty Rating: 85/100

Other Reviews Of Half Nelson On Metacritic